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Shekhar Gupta is Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint and one of India’s most distinguished journalists. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan and multiple journalism awards, he has reported on key events in India and from around the world since the 1980s. At ThePrint, he does a daily online show, Cut the Clutter, in which he dissects, analyses, and contextualises complex daily news developments and current affairs. He also writes his weekly column National Interest.
Mr. Gupta, a highly disappointing column.
You write of happenings at the election commission without raising any serious questions or passing judgment.
For example, the 2023 law that puts the CEC above the law – just taken at face value.
The disagreements with the other two commissioners? Just mentioned and the reasons not delved into.
Is this AI slop masquerading as a Shekhar Gupta column?
Seriously man! Is this all just a ‘messaging problem’?
Poor writeup. No substantial input just hankering on past.
Dear Sekhar Gupta, what a good story it is! You are a great journey, but this article is just a story, not a media article. There is little fact here, it is just based on perception. In each and every office, private or government there will be differences of opinion, there will be objections. That is natural. But the CEC can have his opinion too. Why that does not matter. Why some objections of the ECs become more correct? Just because it is what helps the opposition parties? That is ridiculous and absurd. How many citizens have filed against SIR? That is what matters. The perceptions created by journos like you and the opposition matters little. Because you guys are misusing your positions in the democratic ladders and you guys doing for your selfish reasons. Please respect the public opinion with facts, not just perception.
The 2023 law has never been tested. A petition against the incumbent CEC has been filed in the Supreme Court, based on the investigations carried out by Indian Express.
What could be the rationale or wisdom of appointing feather light CMs for some very large states. For the average citizen, the state governments matters so much more than the central government. A wide range of services, something as basic as sending drinking water by tankers to villages.
M S Gill diminished the apolitical aura of the Election Commission by becoming a minister subsequently. Then there was Naveen Chawla, whose closeness to the family started during the Emergency itself. To be fair to history, all governments have played footsie. Some a little, some lots.
Retaining him would be a – grave – error of judgment. My second submission on Shri Vir Sanghvi’s outstanding column. Completely untenable now.
I remember Rajiv Kumar. With some forgettable Urdu couplets. There was another gentleman from Gujarat cadre. Then someone who had been Chairman CBDT, with extensions. Now part of an innocuous Lok Pal which the Editor had feared would become a monster when it was being discussed with Anna Hazare and his colleagues. A gradual decline, if one may say this respect.