Indian elections
SFA Roomy, New DOHS, Dhaka
Recently a general election was held in India, a nation of over one billion people. Save some isolated incidents here and there, an election involving about seven hundred million voters, was conducted successfully. And the beauty of the whole exercise was that nobody ever pointed a finger at the Election Commission! How could the Election Commission of India achieve such a feat without the added advantage of a caretaker government like ours? We can all foresee as to what would happen in our next general election. Irrespective of the outcome, somebody somewhere would definitely point a finger at the Election Commission. May be the Election Commission of India has more powers than our Election Commission (EC). If that is the case, why can't we empower our EC in a similar way? The Ghazipur by-election is a case in point. It took place smoothly and without any controversy even in the absence of a caretaker government. This could only happen because the EC was allowed to work without any pressure from any quarters. I cannot resist mentioning another two such institutions of India. These are Indian Judiciary and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Both these institutions command tremendous respect and also awe from all citizens of India. It is likely that some of my fellow countrymen would treat my observations with a bit of contempt. We do have some differences with India on certain issues and perhaps clash of interest on some other issues. This is but natural between neighbours. But I find no harm in learning a lesson or two from the institutions developed by the world's largest democracy.
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