By Nilotpal Basu
The independent constitutional authority, Election Commission of India, tasked to conduct free and fair elections, today stands like the naked Emperor. Since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was launched on June 24, 2025, for Bihar, it was clear that it was not intended to clean up the electoral rolls. It had no precedent contrary to what was claimed by the ECI nor was it backed by any formal decision nor based on any due diligence to hold the exercise across the nation as was made out during launch. The statutory provisions of the election laws and regulations didn’t validate this exercise. It was simply aimed at mass disenfranchisement of the citizen’s constitutional right to vote. However, it was also clear that the exclusion was not arbitrary; there was madness in the method. There was clear design to cleanse the rolls of such voters who given their socioeconomic and identity background were more likely to vote against the BJP.
From the experience of Bihar onwards, it has also become obvious that the single most convenient stick and eraser will be the question of legitimate citizenship. It was this that weaponized the entire exercise. It was most obnoxious that Art.326 of the Constitution which was meant to ensure universal adult franchise with the presumption of universal citizenship unless challenged and established to the contrary by the provisions of the Foreigners Act was harnessed for this purpose.
The tangential reference to Art.326 was the specious ground to try and bring in the citizenship question through the backdoor. Though loud claims were made on large numbers of ‘foreigners’ present on the rolls to justify this unprecedented exercise of such a humongous magnitude, after coverage of nearly the entire country (save four states) and the rolls being clipped by thirteen and a half crore voters, the ECI has failed to come up with any authentic numbers of ‘foreigners’ identified. It was Home Minister Amit Shah’s original explicit gameplan ‘detect, delete, deport’ that was being put into action by the ECI, particularly the CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
The scale of deletions itself is also posing the biggest problem for carrying the fake ‘infiltrator’ bogey that Shah inspired and Gyanesh Kumar executed with any degree of credibility. The nearly 13.5 crore names deleted in the SIR exercise constitutes approximately 15 per cent of the pre-SIR numbers. The population to electors ratio, either state wise or cumulatively, leads to only one inescapable conclusion – the SIR exercise has resulted in mass disenfranchisement.
The problem does not end there. During the last almost one and half years the ECI has ended up exposing itself by brazenly contravening procedures and statutes, reaching its nadir in West Bengal where voting rights of 27 lakh people had to remain suspended during the Assembly elections. The judicial tribunals created under the direction of the apex court have come to the conclusion that it would take 12-25 years to complete the process of examination of all the ‘under adjudication’ cases. Of the miniscule numbers of cases scrutinised, names of 93 per cent of people have been put back on to the rolls.
The criminality of the ECI is now further exposed in the judicial process through its own affidavit filed before the apex court. Apart from 22 lakh people who had approached the tribunals for restoration, 16 lakh were additionally referred to these tribunals from among 33lakh who were cleared by judicial officers, as a result of attempts to keep them out through the exercise of Form 7 applications otherwise meant for individual objectors. One of the tribunal chiefs, a former judge of the Kolkata High Court observed that a substantial part of these applications was initiated by EC officials themselves.
There is no ground for any doubt that the BJP was hand in glove with such brazen wrongdoing. At every stage, in the face of every question raised, BJP jumped into the fray to defend ECI. But the gravity of the challenge that SIR was posing despite the strong political opposition was still not fully fathomed given the pronounced constitutional and legal intricacies. On the one hand, citizens particularly, the vulnerable sections were suffering great insecurity, but the overall desperation was missing.
The muffled half-hearted judicial interventions did not help matters. The Supreme Court did not show the urgency it warranted and were overly concerned about ensuring the independence of the ECI to act in discharging its constitutional responsibility. But, that the ECI was faking its narrative often with untruths was missed. In the internal functioning of the ECI, the blatant violations of statutory processes were hidden from judicial recognition and even public awareness.
The explosive exposé by the Indian Express investigation has radically changed the entire situation. The entire exercise of SIR, especially the design of the Form 6 format and the subsequent changes digressing from the statutory requirement, the facilitation off Form 7 driven misuse often by BJP activists leading to large number of deletions and above all, how software and design led ECI net framework subverted the statutory powers of the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO), all came under full public view through that exposé. The appointment and oversight of the official responsible was allowed to bypass accountability to the entire Commission.
But more importantly, it was revealed that the three-member Commission itself was a divided house. The law required all decisions to be taken either unanimously or by majority. This made many of these decisions flagged by two Commissioners on files in opposition to Gyanesh Kumar yet pursued unilaterally ipso facto infructuous.
Now that the CJI of the SC Bench has orally observed that the changes in the Form 6 were not endorsed by the SC contrary to Gyanesh Kumar’s claim, further proceedings will pose an opportunity for the apex court to stop the SIR through constitutional route. This has become imperative because otherwise, constitutional rights of 15 per cent of the population will be lost.
Gyanesh Kumar has become such a polarising figure that even a semblance of impartiality and credibility cannot be ensured with him at the helm of the Commission for conduct of transparent, free and fair elections. If violation of statutes is established, there is no way that Commission can continue as ‘business as usual’!
Meanwhile, the charge of ‘vote chori’ has reached a crescendo. MPs of the entire opposition have come out on the streets. The GenZ, buoyed by their success in removing Dharmendra Pradhan, have joined this effort of saving the right to vote and electoral democracy. If Delhi and Mumbai are indications, the mood is proving to be infectious across the country with INDIA platform adopting a proactive mode. The absolute brutal, degenerate and perverted handling of protests by the Delhi Police under Amit Shah’s charge, particularly in dealing with women protestors are adding fuel to fire.
A critical juncture has arrived. It is for the Government to decide whether confrontation will be averted or else the situation will lapse into anarchy. Democracy is at stake. A billion plus primarily argumentative Indian cannot be transformed into a nation of zombies. Reason has to triumph over blind faith. Not a ‘Banana Republic’, legacy of the freedom struggle and Constitutional principles beckon us. (IPA Service)
