SIR is needed not for the list, but the conduct of elections
text_fields
Beyond the electoral victories and defeats, the time has come to worry about the country's democratic future. The loss of credibility of elections is a strong sign that the country's Constitution and the balance of power between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, are under threat. The signs are undeniable. They indicate that it is time for patriotic politicians, the public, and the judiciary to take decisive action. The Election Commission has failed miserably to dispel the serious apprehensions engendered by the various elections in recent times. Not isolated errors, but systematic tampering with the electoral roll, voting and counting of votes have come to the public's attention. As has been pointed out many times, the authorities have not yet given a satisfactory answer or explanation for the manipulations described by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha in two press conferences. When the Election Commission appointed by the government functions without transparency, leaving ample scope for corruption, without minding allegations or considering complaints, it should be assumed that whatever can happen is happening. It is time to loudly raise the question whether elections is something to be conducted in the dark and with loss of credibility of the people and the opposition parties.
According to Article 324 of the Constitution, the Election Commission is responsible for conducting “free and fair” elections. The point that what is happending is far from that os not a mere allegation. Problems with the electoral rolls are an example. In Maharashtra, the BJP alliance, which won only 35 per cent of the seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, won 82 per cent of the seats in the assembly elections held five months later. In these five months from June to October, the electoral rolls swelled in an unnatural manner. More than 40 lakh voters joined the rolls, exceeding the population growth many times over. On the other hand, there were also incidents of mass exclusion of genuine voters. Electoral roll manipulation has been reported in many states, including Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana and West Bengal. It is believed to have taken place on a significant scale in Bihar. There were repeated attempts to remove 80,000 voters (all from groups likely to vote against the BJP) from a single constituency; Though the Election Commission was apprised of this, no action was taken. A 2018 study indicated that anti-BJP voters were being excluded across the country. A public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court regarding mass exclusions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The large number of fake voters has made the electoral roll a laughing stock in front of the world. There is no clarity on what is being done in the name of Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The allegation that what is being done in the name of purging the list is actually adding more confusion cannot be dismissed. If there were fewer than 17 lakh applications for inclusion in the voter list in Bihar, more than 21 lakh voters were newly added to the final voter list. There is no explanation as to where these five lakhs came from.
There are problems in the voting process, too - blocking and intimidation of voters, etc. There are many incidents of discrepancies in the counting of votes. In short, there are many examples of elections not being held free from state influence as envisaged by the Constitution. The Election Commission's appointment process begins with government subservience. Lack of transparency has become synonymous with elections. When the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered in December 2024 that the surveillance camera footage of the Haryana Assembly election voting be made available to the complainant, Mahmood Pracha, the Commission did not comply. Within days, the Modi government amended the Election Act (1961) to make election records inaccessible to the public. Then came another decision by the Election Commission - to destroy such records within 45 days. What needs to be scrutinised and cleaned up now is not the electoral roll, but the electoral system. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court in 2024 against the appointment process that effectively turned the Election Commission, a constitutional institution, into a government department. There are other petitions in the courts too. How many elections have been held since then! There is more to come. Even after almost two years, the court has not been able to consider a crucial petition which is regrettable and dangerous too.
