Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi has revealed in a new book that late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had quietly ticked off Cabinet colleagues for casting aspersions on the poll panel after it censured Salman Khurshid for model code of conduct violations in 2012.In “India and I”, set for July 24 release, Quraishi writes that after he flagged the concerns around ministers’ inuendos to Manmohan Singh through his press adviser Harish Khare, the Prime Minister said, “If that is what you think, I will commit suicide.” This, the former CEC said, left him shaken as the comments were meant for UPA ministers and not the PM himself.Not just that, Manmohan Singh said he would have “blasted them (the ministers) had he known about the innuendos”.He went on to ask Quraishi to “just pick up the phone and call if ever there’s something to say”.At the core of the matter, Quraishi recalls in his book, was the EC’s 2012 censure of then minister Salman Khurshid, who made a promise during the UT poll campaign that the Congress government, if elected, would raise the quota for Muslims in government jobs from 4.5 per cent to 9 per cent.“The BJP promptly complained of a model code violation, which stipulated that no new scheme could be announced after the election process was set in motion and the model code of conduct kicked in…Eventually, we ‘censured’ Khurshid, the strongest action available under the code. He was visibly upset, and soon, voices in his party suggested the commission had become ‘arrogant’ or ‘arbitrary’. Criticism never bothers me; innuendo that chips away at institutional credibility does. This loose talk was not acceptable,” writes Quraishi in the Hachette India publication.After the word reached Manmohan Singh, the latter phoned Quraishi. “The next day, the RAX (Restricted Access Exchange) phone rang. Manmohan Singh came on the line, his voice anxious — ‘Quraishi ji, can I see you urgently?’ The tone suggested he might come to me. I said, ‘Sir, you are the Prime Minister. I’ll come whenever you say.’ We fixed 7 pm…When I reached his residence that evening, Manmohan Singh was waiting at the door. He led me in and, before we had even settled, said in a voice that carried genuine anguish: ‘Harish told me what you said. If that is what you think, I will commit suicide,” states the book.Quraishi went on to reveal that Manmohan Singh next told him: “The Election Commission is not just India’s pride; it is the soul of our democracy. If we lose that, we lose everything.”Soon afterwards, the innuendos stopped as a “quiet word had been passed and nothing more needed saying”, the former CEC recalls in the book where he lauds Manmohan Singh for his impassioned defence of the poll panel. “I have met many powerful people in my life, but few who wore power so lightly, or felt its weight so deeply. In a profession that rewards a thick skin, Manmohan Singh stood out for a rare sensitivity in the exercise of power,” Quraishi states in the book.Importantly, the former CEC’s recall of Manmohan Singh’s impassioned defence of the EC today triggered a political slugfest with the BJP and the Congress drawing their own inferences from the same.While BJP’s Sambit Patra described the episode as a “definitive proof of absolute degradation of the PMO under the super Prime Minister remote control culture of Sonia Gandhi”, Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said Manmohan Singh’s comments contrasted with “how the incumbent PM views the EC — as an instrument to exercise political hegemony”.