Rushda Majeed Innovations for Successful Societies IMPLEMENTING STANDARDS WITHOUT THE FORCE OF LAW: INDIA’S ELECTORAL CONDUCT CODE, 1990 - 2001 SYNOPSIS T.N. Seshan took over as head of the Election Commission of India in 1990, when negative campaigning was on the increase. Candidates appealed to voters on caste and communal lines, sometimes provoking violence. A voluntary Model Code of Conduct, designed to help moderate the excesses of political parties during elections, had lain dormant since its creation 30 years earlier. During the next 11 years, Seshan and his successor, M.S. Gill, worked to elevate the code’s norms and to elicit compliance. Although some campaign excesses persisted, by 2010 the code had become an effective tool for shaping electoral tactics and the behavior of political parties in India. This case offers insights into how to build acceptance of standards that have no force of law. Rushda Majeed drafted this case on the basis of interviews conducted in New Delhi in November 2010. INTRODUCTION Congress, dominated the political scene. The Seated in his New Delhi office in 2010, Election Commission of India (ECI), set up in M.S. Gill advised, “Remember that the 1950 to supervise and control elections, politicians are in mortal combat for the power of concerned itself mainly with ballot design, India and the country needs a very firm, steady management of poll workers and the conduct of and unified command from the election vote counts. commission.” Gill, who served as India’s chief In 1960, an official in the state of Kerala election commissioner from 1996 to 2001, knew drafted a Model Code of Conduct for the the challenges of conducting free and fair Guidance of Political Parties and Candidates, to elections in the world’s most populous set rules for candidates during a close electoral democracy, where loyalties often were measured race. Among other aims, the code, in its final in terms of religion, language, caste or region. form, restricted the use of inflammatory Election-linked violence was a constant risk. language that could divide India’s diverse In the 30 years after India’s partition and electorate on the basis of caste, religion or independence in 1947, one political party, the region. It warned against “corrupt practices” Indian National Congress, popularly known as such as coercing or bribing voters. The code © 2011, Trustees of Princeton University 1 Terms of use and citation format appear at the end of this document and at http://www.princeton.edu/successfulsocieties. Rushda Majeed Innovations for Successful Societies contained guidelines for holding meetings and service hierarchy. Shortly after that, he served processions, and it outlined how candidates and on the Planning Commission of India, an political parties should behave on Election Day. agency responsible for India’s five-year economic It also included a section to prevent incumbent plans, before taking the reins at the ECI. candidates from misusing the powers of their Gill took over as chief election offices during elections. The code gave the state commissioner in 1996, after Seshan had election commission a tool to help reduce the completed his term. The 60-year old Gill had risk of violence and to level the playing field, already been a commission member for 2 1/2 although compliance was voluntary. years. An accomplished civil servant, he had With the agreement of political parties, risen through the ranks in the western states of which largely viewed the code as a paper tiger, Punjab and Haryana. With degrees in the ECI in 1962 adopted the Kerala document agriculture and developmental studies, Gill had for national use, made a few changes, and gone on to serve in the central ministries of circulated it during every election from that year chemicals and fertilizers and agriculture and onward. The commission further revised the cooperatives before becoming an election code in later years, making major changes in commissioner in 1993. 1974 and 1979. Political parties and candidates Both men believed that the code of conduct at first largely ignored the code, aware that the could be developed into an effective tool for document had no statutory backing. However, dealing with fierce electoral competition in the code’s provisions gained importance as the multicultural and multireligious India. The period of relative political calm faded in the late question was: How? 1970s and 1980s. More intense party competition and coalition politics ushered in a THE CHALLENGE new and abrasive phase in the country’s political From the outset Seshan knew that the ECI life. Political parties appealed to ethnic, had to reduce inflammatory rhetoric and ensure religious and caste differences to assemble voting that incumbents did not misuse their powers. blocs. Violence often followed, as regional, The president had appointed him soon after the religious and caste-based parties challenged 1989 elections, when two long-simmering and Congress’ dominance. divisive issues resurfaced and threatened Two experienced civil servants, first Seshan violence. and later his successor Gill, faced these Caste-based discrimination had long challenges between 1990 and 2001 during their afflicted politics in India. In 1979, the successive terms as head of the ECI. government had appointed the Mandal In December 1990, President R. Commission to study the problem. Named after Venkataraman appointed Seshan, 58 years old at the parliamentarian who headed it, the the time, as chief of the ECI. A career civil commission had proposed a sharp increase in the servant, Seshan had held high-level positions in number of government jobs and public Tamil Nadu state before going abroad to earn university positions reserved for disadvantaged his master’s degree in public administration from citizens classified as “other backward classes.” In Harvard University in 1968. Upon his return, 1989, when the newly elected government, Seshan was assigned to senior-level positions at seeking to consolidate alliances with caste-based the ministries of defense and internal security. political parties, tried to enforce the affirmative- In 1989, Seshan became cabinet secretary, a post action recommendations, violence erupted as that was considered the pinnacle of the civil students and political groups protested. © 2011, Trustees of Princeton University 2 Terms of use and citation format appear at the end of this document and at http://www.princeton.edu/successfulsocieties. Rushda Majeed Innovations for Successful Societies A second source of tension, centered on the have to act even more quickly than first status of the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century imagined. The 1989 elections to the Lok Sabha, mosque in the town of Ayodhya in north India, the legislature, had brought a loose coalition of intensified at the same time. Many Hindus opposition parties to power, ousting Rajiv believed that the mosque stood on the birthplace Gandhi, the Congress party candidate. of a prominent Hindu god and wanted to build a However, the coalition soon unraveled. A new temple, or mandir, on the site. For Muslims, election would have to take place in 1991, only however, the mosque was equally important, as 16 months after the opposition government had it was one of the oldest and largest in the formed. Seshan and the commission had little country. The “mandir issue” had been tied up in time to develop and implement a strategy for the courts since 1950, when, in 1984, right-wing dampening division. religious organizations, along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a rising power in national FRAMING A RESPONSE politics, started a movement to reclaim the site. The election commission had few tools at In 1989, the BJP, making the mandir issue an its disposal to dampen violence in future important part of its election campaigning, won elections. Seshan, and later Gill, recognized that 85 seats compared with just two in the 1984 reviving the code as an effective policy tool elections. In September 1990, prominent BJP would require the ECI to build broad support leaders launched religious processions across for the code and its goals, and to induce many Indian states to whip up support for politicians and parties to abide by the code’s leveling the mosque. Rioting broke out in the recommended campaign practices. Compliance wake of the processions, leading to the collapse monitoring would be crucial, and the of the central government and the National commission would need significant numbers of Front and Samajwadi Janata Party coalitions in election-time personnel to identify and deal with the space of just four months. violations. As the political environment deteriorated, Before 1990, the commission had taken few Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar Singh steps to monitor violations or win compliance. appointed a committee to consider electoral Because the code was a voluntary document, reforms. The Goswami Committee on Electoral agreed to and accepted by political parties and Reform, set up in January 1990 under Law based on the parties’ good will, the commission Minister Dinesh Goswami, issued its findings had left it to the parties to regulate the behavior five months later. Among other of their candidates within the parameters set by recommendations, the report endorsed 1) the the code. Without fear of opprobrium or disqualification of candidates who campaigned sanctions, candidates flouted the code’s on caste or religious lines, or instigated standards. Indeed, S. K. Mendiratta, who joined communal animosities during elections, and 2) the commission in 1964 and was its legal adviser the investigation, special trial or prosecution of in 2010, described the code as having been candidates who intimidated or coerced voters. “more of a sermon on paper” before Seshan’s In addition, the report recommended that the arrival. “We were not watching its actual election commission should void results and implementation,” he said. arrange fresh elections in cases where During their respective terms in office, both misconduct reported by electoral officers turned Seshan and Gill knew that the commission and out to be true.