Election Commission (EC) issues notice to two IPS officers of Bihar because they had the temerity to wish their chief minister on the occasion of holy festival of Holi after the Model Code of Conduct for Political Parties had come into effect.

EC orders removal of portraits of chief ministers and prime minister in public offices after the announcement of election schedule.

It is nothing short of electoral fundamentalism and, to a great extent, Talibanisation of our election law.

When Mr. T. N. Seshan came to be the Chief Election Commissioner, he wielded a rod to do a lot with a missionary spirit to cleanse our electoral process to make our elections not only free and fair bereft of the element of fear, but also to appear these to be so. Elections since then have turned more peaceful and less violent.

After Mr. Seshan no CEC has been able to put the clock back to the days when EC virtually functioned as a department of the government looking up to the mood and the nod of those in power.

Successive election commissioners have contributed their mite to making the poll process still more meaningful and effective to reflect the will of the people.

But, of late, certain diktats have made the EC appear overdoing and super-sensitive ignoring the social and political reality. It can only be naive on the part of EC to apprehend that the portraits of prime minister and chief ministers hung in offices in their respective states will influence the voters visiting the public offices to blindly vote for them or the political party they belong irrespective of their performance.