Urgent need to find ways to enforce the EC's accountability

Institutional decline in the EC pre-dates NDA-2 and the Congress has no moral authority to object to the present incumbents

Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his speech in a campaign rally by the salutation “Abhinandan!”—literally, “salutations” in Hindi. It cannot be entirely coincidental that Abhinandan is also the Indian Air Force officer who became a household name after he was shot down over Pakistan, captured and subsequently released. Disingenuously, he also added that he was sure that the Congress would complain to the Election Commission (EC) about this.

Although he was sailing close to the wind, Prime Minister Modi seemed confident that any complaint about the impropriety of using the valour of the armed forces for garnering votes would be ignored