Essay on Election Commission of India | Essays for Class 7 PDF Download

Introduction

The title of the largest democracy in the world belongs to India and most of the credit for this title goes to the important role that Election Commission of India plays in maintaining the democratic values of the country in line with the constitution of India. Election Commission of India is an independent and autonomous body that was formed in the year 1950 after India attained Independence from the British.

Election Commission of India(ECI)

Election Commission of India also known as ECI has various roles and responsibilities and the major one is to have a smooth functioning electoral procedure in the country. For a country as big and as diverse as India with the population of 135 crore people, it is not an easy task to conduct elections at such a massive scale and Election Commission of India has been doing it for the past 70 years which is a commendable feat in itself.
Election Commission of India has been adapting to changes in the election scenarios of the country as and when required. They have increasingly adopted the power of technology to conduct smooth elections in the country. Electronic voting machines or popularly known as EVM’s was introduced in the 2004 Lok Sabha election. This was a revolutionary step taken by the election commission of India that reduced the discrepancies and fraud during elections. ECI also introduced the system of voter ID in the year 1993 that further helped to smoothen the process of elections. It gave a clear and distinct identity for people who are eligible to vote and distinguished them from people who weren’t eligible to vote.
One of the most revolutionary steps taken by Election Commission of India was to introduce the options None Of The Above (NOTA). This was an important option in a country like India where every political party and candidates can be corrupt and not suitable to lead the people. In such cases, people can send out a message saying that none of the leaders who were standing for the election is capable enough to let them. The concept of None Of The Above (NOTA) represents the condition of the political parties in India and this innovative step taken by the election commission of India was lauded by the international community.
But not everything is hunky-dory with respect to Election Commission of India. In the last 70 years, the Election Commission of India has faced a lot of criticism from various aspects of life within India and outside India as well. Introduction of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has come under criticism for its inaccuracy and the possibility of hampering by various political parties of India such as Bhartiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Samajwadi Party. There are petitions lying in the Supreme court of India to discard the concept of electronic voting machines and to bring back the pen and paper ballot system for conducting a free and fair election in the country. The debate about banning EVMs is still going on even in the year 2020.

Conclusion

Inspite of robust laws and policies in place, the Election Commission of India has failed to implement this model code of conduct in the last few years. There has been criticism that Election Commission of India has been compromised and is acting as a mouthpiece for the Government of India. This is dangerous precedence because the Election Commission of India should not be influenced by any other bodies in the country. Election Commission of India should only follow and obey the constitution of India and not any other institution in the country.