By Arun Srivastava
Majoritarianism, a political philosophy has always been striving for a permanent majority. Saffron ecosystem through the SIR has been trying to experiment with this. Majoritarianism basically is totalitarian in character and nature and intends to govern and make decisions, potentially at the expense of minority communities’ needs and rights.
The majoritarianism is the guiding force behind Election Commission telling the Supreme Court that it would not explain the reasons for not furnishing draft rolls and the names of 65 lakh voters whose names do not find place in the revised voters list. Obviously question arises on what basis was the ECI providing the breakup of these 65 lakh people; dead, relocated, duplicate and untraceable? If there is no statutory provision to do so, what was the basis?”
Petitioner and poll watchdog ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms), had sought the deleted names and the reasons for the deletions be made public. The audacity of the EC not to abide by the Supreme Court order and also not to reply all questions must be seen and believed as an attempt to achieve its objective. The most significant has been the EC shared the old list, not the revised list which it had released on August 1 and promised to keep it open till September 1 for public scrutiny. But it has removed the revised list.
Obviously this action of EC turns it suspect. Does it indicate the taking of more stringent measures to finish the secular identity of India and deprive the Dalits and poor of their democratic rights? It is significant to note that the EC withdrew the digitalised voter list, once its plan to make operative the Mahadevapura model in Bihar got exposed. The conspiracy would not have got exposed if the EC had not gone for deletion of 65 lakh voters. What made the EC to retreat was the expose of its design to register more than 60 voters, following the Mahadevapura model, in one room in Bihar too. Detection of more than one EPIC card also torpedoed its move.
So far INDIA bloc leaders, especially Rahul Gandhi, have been acquiescing the cogent posture and suggest Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar to undo the wrong, turn the ECI as a political challenger, destroy the basic ethics of the elections and the electoral system, but Gyanesh Kumar showing utter contempt to their sobriety and subverting the sanctity of the election system, of course at the behest of his political master, has forced the INDIA bloc to confront the ECI and expose its design on the street
Little doubt the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar was an “invasive reconstruction of the electoral roll”, as told by Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of CPI(ML), and primarily meant to disenfranchise the voters who Narendra Modi dislikes and treats as his enemies and potential threat to the saffron fascist politics of Hindutva. The manoeuvrings which Gyanesh Kumar has been resorting to, gives the impression that Joseph Goebbels has come alive out of his grave.
Bihar gong to the polls in November is not only the reason for INDIA bloc to kickstart its agitation with a 15-day yatra against SIR on August 15. Dipankar underscores Bihar has been the most politically sensitive state and once it launches a movement on any issue, it brings about fundamental changes in the situation. The agitation against SIR will not only be confined to Bihar, instead will spread across the country. The primary motive is to make the people rebel against the dirty designs of Gyanesh and Modi. Foil their move to disenfranchise the Dalits, proletariats and minorities and strengthen the majoritarianism. The degree of conspiracy could be gauged from the small changes made by Gyanesh. In its 19 July the EC communique had used the phrases ‘probably deceased’ and ‘probably permanently shifted’, but its 21 July directive speaks of ‘deceased electors reported so far’ and ‘permanently shifted electors reported so far’.
Before focusing on Bihar, INDIA bloc preferred to send the message across the country of the designs of the CEC and Modi through taking out march of INDIA bloc MPs from Parliament to office of ECI against SIR on August 11. Leaders of opposition parties have come to realise that this is the situation of now or never. If they don’t destroy the ECI design they would be finished for ever. With the intention to broad base the agitation and expose the conspiracy of Gyanesh Kumar, Congress has also launched ‘Clean voter list is essential’ portal urging citizens to ‘register’ against ‘vote chori’.
Three state electoral officers seeking clarification from Rahul about his expose and share the names of electors who were either included or excluded wrongfully for initiating “necessary proceedings” has evoked strong resentment in the INDIA bloc circle. These leaders ridicule this move of EC and point out the figures were not manufactured by Rahul. Instead the figures are of ECI. By seeking Rahul to provide affidavit, the ECI was in reality certifying that the figures provided by it were not right.
They argue CEC Gyanesh Kumar should have filed affidavit that the figures provided by it were correct and true. By asking Rahul Gandhi to sign a declaration Kumar was simply passing the buck and shielding the rightist and majoritarian forces. Rahul would have to provide the affidavit if he had prepared his own figures and information. Meanwhile Rahul has said; “I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, take it as an oath. They haven’t said the voter lists (shown by me) are wrong. We know you (EC) have done this across the country.”
In its desperation, CEC is resorting to nonsensical actions. It has sought an ‘intense inquiry’ on Tejashwi’s voter card. He had alleged that he was issued a wrong card. EC claimed that they had done a fact-check and his name did feature on the rolls, and he had used an incorrect electors photo identity card (EPIC) number for the search. Fact is, onus is not on Tejashvi to prove the genuineness of the card. If he has two cards, it is for ECI to reply from where he got two cards?
Even Modi’s best friend Donald Trump and RSS’s idol Lord Ram have managed to get cards in Bihar. “Bihar’s SIR has President Trump from Samastipur & Ram S/O Dashrath & Kaushalya from Khagaria. Only Lord Ram can save us from @ECISVEEP madness!” Moitra, the Lok Sabha MP from Bengal, wrote along with a video message on X.
In Bihar, the INDIA constituents RJD and CPI(ML) would spearhead the movement. CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “We have found widespread distress and anger among people against SIR in Bihar. That is why our rally is called ‘vote adhikaar yatra’. It will begin in Sasaram on August 15 and will continue until August 31. All the INDIA bloc leaders will address a big rally in Patna on September 1.” According to Dipankar people across the state are angry. In most of the places in state, the people on their own have launched movement against EC.
He said “EC has been conducting the SIR in a very negative way. It does not give data and lists properly; the EC’s mode is to dare people, like catch us if you can”. Bhattacharya said that CPI(ML) will hold a separate rally against the SIR to mark the Quit India Movement’s anniversary from August 9-11. The rally is meant to attack the ECI and the BJP as “Chunav Chor, Gaddi Chor” (Election thief, Political Seat’s thief). Rallies will have “Azadi Bachao, Samvidhan Bachao, Loktantra Bachao” (Save Freedom, Save Constitution, Save Democracy) slogan.
He also said that CPI(ML) has lodged several complaints with ECI specifically pointing out that names of genuine voters who are still alive, have been shown as dead. He also pointed out that some BLOs who reveal the dirty design of the EC and point out malafide deletion of the genuine voters are being sacked. Dipankar holds that “INDIA bloc should be more dynamic outside Parliament’. If they get away with this in Bihar, they will apply it everywhere else; it could be Kerala tomorrow.” (IPA Service)
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