Judges abhor vacuum

What is the biggest mystery about India's elections? That it involves the largest number of electors? The largest number of parties? The largest number of candidates? The largest number of polling booths? Or that this third-world polity of starving millions was the first to introduce universal electronic franchise? All these are. But the biggest is that our electoral system has been working well with little backing of the law.

- R. PRASANNAN

I am talking of the model code of conduct, that set of rules which prescribes that ministers' names and photos shall be removed from ministries' websites once the polls are proclaimed, that a candidate can have only so many cars escorting him, that he can't stay in dak bungalows while on campaign trail, that he can't hold meetings after 10pm, and so on. It is these 'rules' that empower a petty district collector to pull the plug on a Union cabinet minister if he goes on orating after 10pm, confiscate a local bully's car that is carrying currency bundles, or rifle through the boot of the PM's escort car. It is another matter that some such knights in shining armours have found themselves time-serving in sinecures soon after elections.