By Arun Srivastava
Supreme Court of India while allowing the Election Commission to continue with the Special Intensive Revision of Bihar electoral rolls, suggested to include three documents Aadhaar, EC voter ID, and ration card for inclusion of the names in the voters’ list. The SC did not issue any order. It virtually put the onus on the EC to consider it during the enumeration procedure.
Undoubtably the suggestion is not of the nature of obligation for the EC. The political compulsion and urgency with which EC rushed to implement simply gives rise to certain trepidations, which may not allow the EC to comply; or even if complies it may come out with certain “do and don’t”. The fear owes to the fact that if the EC has launched the SIR scheme with open and free mind, it must not have gone beyond its operational domain and dared to violate the Constitutional provision of asking the voters to prove their citizenship.
If at all the Modi government has been in possession of correct and true information of foreigners, obliquely referring to Muslims, getting enrolled as voters it could have asked the officials of Home Ministry to launch a verification programme. But instead of resorting to this path, it entrusted the ECI to cross the Laxman Rekha and tress pass into the domain of home ministry. Working with this intention, it would be naïve to believe that ECI would strictly abide by the suggestions of Supreme Court.
Situation might have been entirely different if the SC had passed an order. Under that backdrop the ECI would not have any alternative but to abide by the SC order. Though Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing the petitioners challenging ECI’s directive had said that all the “merits” remain open to them and court has given the time to reply by the end of July, prolonging of the time would prove to be counterproductive and harm the interest of the people. The EC will use the time span to implement its objective.
In this regard the wording of the SC observations ought to be read carefully “We are of the prima facie opinion that in the interest of justice, the Election Commission will also include documents like Aadhaar, Ration Card, Voter ID card, etc.. It is for the ECI to decide whether it wants to accept the documents or not, and if it does not, then provide reasons for its decision, which shall be sufficient to satisfy the petitioners. Meanwhile, petitioners are not pressing for an interim stay”. With questionable moves the EC would prefer to buy time by furnishing some explanation, which eventually may not be acceptable to petitioners.
SC issuing direction becomes more imperative in the backdrop of it taking note of the fundamental constitutional and legal anomalies and improprieties underlying the EC’s sudden SIR campaign in Bihar and also the logistical issues and inconvenience being experienced by common voters of Bihar. Supreme Court’s suggestion, certainly not directive or order, however corroborates the basic fears and objections of the electorate.
CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya nonetheless holds that Court should also take note of two most basic worries expressed by the Bihar electorate on the basis of the actual experience of the SIR drive: “Most electors are complaining about non-receipt of any acknowledgement about the enumeration forms being submitted. While the EC is citing numbers to claim smooth and rapid progress of the drive on the ground, most electors do not even the comfort of having a record of having submitted the enumeration forms. Migrant workers, including those working abroad, and others currently out of the state for any emergency are finding it extremely difficult to submit enumeration forms and hence remain particularly vulnerable to the danger of disenfranchisement and consequent threat to citizenship.”
“The other big concerns are the difficulties being encountered by the electors in obtaining domicile and caste certificates which can be used as supporting documents and the enormous discretionary power being granted to the ERO to decide on cases of forms without documents on the basis of ‘local investigations’. The number of electors unable to provide any document from the existing list of eleven documents is likely to run into tens of thousands in every constituency and leaving it to EROs to decide on such large numbers of cases without any transparency could pave the way for a whole lot of biased, arbitrary and inaccurate deletions and inclusions in the final roll.”
People of Bihar, specially the Dalits, proletariats and Pasmanda Muslims are afraid of the danger of disenfranchisement though they are getting ready to fight hard to defend their hard won constitutional right to vote. The massive success and support to chakka jam action and Bihar Bandh explicitly manifest the people’s anxiety and anger around the Votebandi drive and also their resolve to defend the constitutional guarantee of universal adult franchise with all their might.
The EC’s SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar has certainly not been its impulsive decision. Political analysts say this is the pilot project of RSS, which would be used across the country, depending on its success rate in Bihar. According to the sources, the process was set in motion just after severe drubbing BJP received at the 2024 Lok Sabha election. For RSS it was the beginning of its decline. RSS was quick to comprehend that it was facing survival threat and remedial measures for retrieving the ground ought to be initiated fast. SIR according to the Sangh ecosystem was the immediate compulsory mechanism to be taken to save the Sangh and its politics of Hindutva. For Sangh ecosystem resorting to majoritarian politics was the best option. SIR is the best mechanism to turn India into a majoritarian state by disfranchising the Dalits, proletariats and Muslims.
Since Bihar is scheduled to have its assembly election in October this year, at least six months ahead of Bengal election, naturally Bihar became the first choice to experiment with the strategy. The Supreme Court on Thursday while hearing the petitions, putting pointed questions to the ECI on SIR provided enough indication that it has doubts about the design of the CEC.
ECI claims that by 8 July 97% had received and 46% had filled and submitted Enumeration Forms. But ground check shows only 41% households (36% of adult members) got it by 7 July. Only 6% were given two copies as per SIR guidelines. Where are these fantastic ECI numbers coming from? The survey also confirms fears of disenfranchisement: 37% of all adults (more than 60% of 18-40 yr old) did not possess any of the documents required by the ECI.
Rahul Gandhi has come to understand and decode EC’s move well in advance, which is why it was for the first time, since he became the LoP, publicly cautioned CEC of the consequences of his action. While addressing the protestors on July 9, during Bharat Bandh, in Patna, Rahul cautioned “People of Bihar want more direct action against the EC officials. The law will not spare the EC officials whether they are in service or retired or shifted to some other place. The people of Bihar say that the EC officials are thick skinned and are not bothered of any threat. They must not replicate the Maharashtra model here. This time they may try to delete the names of many voters. But they must know this is Bihar. The people here can see through the designs.” (IPA Service)
