Overview
- SY Quraishi writes in his forthcoming book that in 2012 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reacted to reports that some ministers were undermining the Election Commission by saying, “If that is what you think, I will commit suicide,” and calling the EC “the soul of our democracy.”
- The episode grew out of the Election Commission’s four‑day hearings and formal censure of then Union minister Salman Khurshid for promising increased Muslim job quotas during the January 2012 Uttar Pradesh campaign, which the EC treated as a Model Code of Conduct violation.
- Quraishi says he first raised his concern with the PM’s press secretary Harish Khare, was asked to meet Singh that evening at the prime minister’s residence, and that a ‘quiet word’ after the meeting ended the public innuendo against the poll body.
- Excerpts of India and I: A Hundred Memories, Not a Memoir were published July 12–14 and prompted immediate political back-and‑forth, with BJP figures using the account to criticise the Congress and Congress leaders using it to criticise the current government’s record on the Election Commission.
- The anecdote highlights how Model Code enforcement can trigger institutional fights and may deepen public debate about the EC’s neutrality and trustworthiness as Quraishi’s full book is due to be released later in July.