The latest effort, as reported in sections of the national press, appears to target the independent and neutral status of the Election Commission. Reports indicate that the government's objective is to pack this authority with its sycophants with the explicit purpose of future political benefits.

The Vajpayee-led government, reports suggest, is contemplating increasing the size of the multi-member Election Commission in order to facilitate its objective. Readers will recall that after considerable debate and initial refusal of the Congress party, the single member Election Commission was expanded to a three-member Election Commission. This was done following the recommendations of the Dinesh Goswami Committee on electoral reforms. Though the Constitutional amendment brought for this purpose does not stipulate a limit to its size, all parties had agreed to limit the size to three members for the purposes of effectivity of immediate intervention whenever and wherever necessary during the elections. The larger the Election Commission, the longer the time required for a collective decision. On the other hand, a single member Election Commission can be susceptible to highhandedness and arbitrariness. Hence, the figure of three. Mr Advani was party to this decision. Now to deviate from this just in order to accommodate communal representatives is tantamount to destroying the independent authority and credibility of the Election Commission.

Immediately after assuming office, the Law Minister called for a massive expansion in the number of Judges. The ostensible plea for this is that there are a large number of pending cases. Since justice delayed is justice denied, these cases should be disposed of at the earliest. No one can have any objections on this score. But the moot question relates to the manner in which these new Judges would be appointed. The track record of the Vajpayee-led government so far indicates that they blatantly make appointments with political considerations far removed from any considerations of merit. In this context, one needs to urgently renew the demand for the Constitution of a National Judicial Commission which will appoint Judges and other officials of the judiciary. Such a Commission, as demanded by the CPI(M) earlier, must be constituted from amongst those holding high office in the executive, legislature and the judiciary.

Unless popular resistance is mounted, the process of communalisation of all institutions and arms of parliamentary democracy will proceed unscrupulously. We have seen in the recent past, during the Kargil conflict, the efforts made by the Saffron Brigade to communalise the armed forces. Beginning with the attendance of leading armed forces personnel at a BJP National Executive meeting, this process of communalising of the armed forces reached its peak when the Indian army and the Indian Tibetan Border People (ITBP) provided logistical and material support to the RSS function, `Sindhu Yatra' at Ladakh in Leh.