Remember rule book: EC

Come election time and the focus shifts to bureaucrats and police officials, who are responsible for keeping democratic norms on the right track and check that the model code of conduct is not violated.

Come election time and the focus shifts to bureaucrats and police officials, who are responsible for keeping democratic norms on the right track and check that the model code of conduct is not violated.

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But as many bureaucrats play to the tune of their political bosses, the Election Commission had to intervene twice last week to check what it believed was election malpractice. Haryana DGP M.S. Malik had to proceed on leave following an EC directive. Malik's wife is contesting the election on the ruling INLD ticket from Sonepat. While chief minister Om Prakash Chautala defended the indefensible, the EC had none of it and cracked the whip.

Then the sari episode in Lucknow exposed the local bureaucracy. Though the model code of conduct was violated, the local officials preferred to stay mute spectators. They did not even know what action to take in such a situation and whether permission had been taken from the administration to organise the ill-fated function. The EC had to step in and transfer district magistrate Aradhana Shukla and SSP Rajiv Ranjan Verma.

However, all was not gloomy for the bureaucracy in the run-up to the elections for the 14th Lok Sabha.

Patna district magistrate Gautam Goswami enforced the rule of law on none other than Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani when he cut the DPM’s speech short as soon as the clock struck 10 p.m. in Patna. Though the DPM rebuked the DM later and some in the BJP said it was at the behest of the ruling RJD, Goswami was nevertheless on the right side of law.