A claim by former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi that then prime minister Manmohan Singh told him, “If that is what you think, I will commit suicide,” after being confronted over Congress leaders’ attacks on the Election Commission of India (ECI) has become the most politically explosive revelation in Quraishi’s forthcoming book, “India and I: A Hundred Memories, Not a Memoir”.
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The anecdote, contained in a chapter titled “The Day the Prime Minister Said the Unthinkable”, revisits the bitter confrontation between ECI and the Congress during the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections after the poll panel censured then Union law minister Salman Khurshid for promising enhanced reservation for Muslims during the campaign.
According to Quraishi, he met Singh to complain that senior Congress leaders were repeatedly attacking ECI instead of respecting its constitutional authority. The former CEC writes that a visibly distressed Singh denied having authorised such criticism, saying he would have “blasted” the ministers had he known. He then allegedly remarked, “If that is what you think, I will commit suicide,” while describing ECI as “the soul of our democracy”.
The disclosure triggered an immediate political response, with BJP IT department head Amit Malviya citing the episode to attack the Congress.
Posting on X, Malviya said questioning the neutrality of ECI had long been part of the Congress’s political strategy.
“When the UPA was in power, its ministers repeatedly targeted the Election Commission whenever they were pulled up for violating the Model Code of Conduct,” he wrote, referring to the 2012 controversy involving Khurshid’s quota promise.
Malviya said Quraishi’s account showed that Singh himself had acknowledged the damage caused by his colleagues’ conduct.
“Former CEC SY Quraishi has revealed that prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh later told him he would ‘commit suicide’ over the irresponsible remarks of his own ministers. That episode spoke volumes about the state of the government, a Prime Minister unable to rein in his own colleagues while constitutional institutions were being attacked,” he wrote.
He added that “the Congress playbook has remained unchanged: when in power, it sought to browbeat the Election Commission; when out of power, it seeks to dis”
Congress national secretary Pranav Jha said the BJP’s attempt to resurrect a 2012 episode was nothing more than a distraction from the serious questions being raised today. “Selective anecdotes and hearsay cannot be equated with the present concerns regarding the integrity of the electoral process, transparency in decision-making, and the need to preserve public confidence in democratic institutions,” Jha said. “The BJP conveniently ignores the fact that it has itself questioned the Election Commission on numerous occasions whenever its decisions did not suit the party. Seeking transparency, demanding accountability, or questioning specific actions of a constitutional authority is not an attack on the institution—it is an essential feature of any healthy democracy.”
The Congress leader added that is party has always respected EC as one of the foundational pillars of India’s constitutional democracy.
The book, to be published by Hachette India, contains 100 episodes from Quraishi’s decades-long career in the Indian Administrative Service and later as India’s 17th Chief Election Commissioner. Instead of a conventional autobiography, it presents independent accounts of key moments involving elections, governance and public life.
Several chapters also revisit politically sensitive issues.
Quraishi says he declined a posting as joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office because he feared that, as a Muslim , he would be viewed through a religious lens rather than judged solely on merit. He claims a senior official later remarked, “We already have one Muslim,” suggesting religion had entered the discussion over appointments.
In another chapter, he says the Election Commission warned the Prime Minister after the 2012 Punjab Assembly elections that narcotics were increasingly being used as an electoral inducement, but the issue received little attention until the release of the film Udta Punjab in 2016.
The former CEC also recounts warning Commonwealth Games organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi that inadequate financial accountability could result in “all of us ending up in Tihar Jail”, defends ECI’s decision to cover Mayawati’s elephant statues during the Uttar Pradesh polls, and recalls then information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj defending his appointment as Director General of Doordarshan against objections from within her own party, reportedly saying, “Competence has no religion.”
In the preface, Quraishi says he deliberately avoided writing a conventional autobiography, opting instead for “a hundred snippets” that, together, offer a candid account of his life in public service and the workings of India’s institutions.
