India, May 18 -- Imagine a cricket match in which only one team can choose the umpire.

The other team can complain. They can object. But finally, the decision rests with that one team.

Would we call that cricket?

Not for one second.

Television commentators would explode with outrage. Former cricketers would hold heated discussions in studios with giant screens behind them. We would hear the word "rigged" shouted from every direction.

And rightly so.

Because the first thing people look for in any game is fairness.

Yet strangely, when it comes to our democracy, we seem willing to quietly surrender the very thing we would scream about in sport.

The Supreme Court has observed that the selection of the Election Commissioners and the C...