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The Taj Mahal Mahatma Gandhi India’s electoral democracy
where ignition and combustion take place and where the fuel and engine combine to move the vehicle forward, is the ECI.
C. Rajagopalachari from a diary he maintained while in Vellore Jail in 1921–22. A
Believe it or not, this was written twenty-five years before independence. He continues, ‘Men will look regretfully back to the old regime of comparative justice, and efficient, peaceful, more or less honest administration. The only thing gained will be that as a race we will be saved from dishonour and subordination. Hope lies only in universal education by which right conduct, fear of God, and love will be developed among the citizens from childhood. It is only if we succeed in this that Swaraj will mean happiness. Otherwise, it will mean the grinding injustices and tyranny of wealth.’
We motored to the railway station and went to the railway restaurant. After having the tea we were asked to pay the bill. Every one of us searched his pockets and found that none of us carried sufficient money. Between us we could collect about two and a half rupees. Nehru had about a rupee and a quarter, Mrs Purnima Banerjee another rupee and I gave the few annas to complete the full amount required. How awkward would it have been if we had failed to make up the amount among ourselves!’
I came across a memorable quote by Mark Hanna in The Hindu of 20 October 2007: ‘There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.’
The ‘power of wealth’ then becomes, to use Rajaji’s phrase, a ‘tyranny’, not only for the losing side but for the winning side as well.
‘ECI is the most self-effacing organization, and the Indian election an undocumented wonder!’ I thought this would be the most apt theme and title for this book.
