- Former CEC Quraishi detailed censure of Union Minister Khurshid.
- PM Singh called Quraishi, expressing profound anguish.
- Ministerial criticism against the Election Commission subsequently stopped.
Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi recalls a 2012 conversation in which then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed anguish over ministers’ remarks against the Election Commission, calling it “the soul of India’s democracy.”
Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi has revealed that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once told him, “I will commit suicide,” after learning that some Congress ministers had made remarks questioning the functioning of the Election Commission (EC).
The incident has been recounted in Quraishi’s forthcoming book, India and I: A Hundred Memories, Not a Memoir, which is set to be published by Hachette India.
According to Quraishi, the episode dates back to the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, when the Election Commission censured then Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid for promising to increase the Muslim reservation quota from 4.5 per cent to 9 per cent during the election campaign.
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EC Censured Salman Khurshid
Quraishi writes that the BJP had complained that Khurshid’s announcement violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which prohibits the announcement of new schemes once the election process is underway.
The Commission held hearings over four days, with Congress represented by Abhishek Manu Singhvi and the BJP by Arun Jaitley.
“Eventually, we censured Khurshid, the strongest action available under the Code,” Quraishi writes.
He says the decision upset Khurshid, after which some Congress leaders allegedly suggested that the Election Commission had become “arrogant” and “arbitrary.”
“Criticism never bothers me; innuendo that chips away at institutional credibility does. This loose talk was not acceptable,” Quraishi writes.
PM Called Quraishi After Learning Of His Concerns
Quraishi says he mentioned his concerns during an Eid gathering to Harish Khare, then Press Secretary to the Prime Minister, and asked him to convey the matter to Manmohan Singh.
The following day, he received an urgent call from the Prime Minister’s Office asking him to meet Singh at 7 pm.
According to the former CEC, Singh greeted him personally at his residence and immediately addressed the issue.
“Harish told me what you said. If that is what you think, I will commit suicide,” Singh told him, according to the book.
Quraishi says he was left speechless and clarified that his concern was about the conduct of some ministers, not the Prime Minister himself.
‘EC Is Soul Of Our Democracy’
The former CEC writes that Singh told him he had no knowledge of the ministers’ comments and assured him that he would have strongly reprimanded them had he been aware.
“If ever you have something to say, just pick up the phone and call me,” Singh told him, according to Quraishi.
The former Prime Minister also made a remark that Quraishi says has stayed with him ever since.
“The Election Commission is not just India’s pride; it is the soul of our democracy. If we lose that, we lose everything.”
Quraishi says he later shared the details of the meeting with then Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Harish Khare.
According to him, after the meeting, the criticism of the Election Commission from within the Congress stopped.
Reflecting on the episode, Quraishi writes that Manmohan Singh stood out as “a leader for whom constitutional propriety was not a talking point but a lived conviction.”
The book chronicles 100 episodes from Quraishi’s life and career, including key moments from his tenure as India’s 17th Chief Election Commissioner, during which he introduced reforms such as the Voter Education Division, the Expenditure Monitoring Division and the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM).
