By Nilotpal Basu
Ever since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Rolls was launched, we have been chronicling the trajectory of the process through reports and Editorials in the People’s Democracy. This process has been mired in controversy since its inception on June 24, 2025, in Bihar.
At the outset, it was claimed by ECI that it was to be extended across the entire country. There was very little information, not to speak of well laid out justification with legal provisions and earlier precedents. The ECI had trivialised it by maintaining that it was a mere replication of 2002-03. Despite repeated requests, the ECI had refused to put the details of the 2002-03 exercise in the public domain. However, with the whole issue now coming to a head, it has become clear that the claim was simply unfounded. In the 2002-03 exercise, the voter was not asked to fill up an application form, nor produce any documentary evidence for establishing eligibility.
The second question was of course about bonafides, because Intensive Revisions, whenever they had taken place in the past, were within a constituency or part thereof, to address special circumstances. A blanket SIR across the nation was unprecedented.
But now, with the incisive investigation carried out by the Indian Express, the unseemly conduct of ECI has started to smack of outright wrongdoing. The multi-member Commission was a development refined by experience in the advancement of the functioning of the ECI. It was a reform which carried the weight of unanimous approval across the political spectrum. The multi-member Commission presupposed that all decisions of the Commission would be henceforth decided on the basis of a consensus or by majority. There is no way that decisions can be pursued unilaterally.
The many questions and criticisms that accompanied the progress of the SIR did not evoke transparent responses. The foremost question being debated was whether determination of citizenship can be clubbed with the updating of the Electoral Rolls. While the response of the Commission was only through innuendos, it refused to publicly acknowledge that SIR was trying to pursue that approach; yet the entire design betrayed the real intentions. On the other hand, this pursuit put an extremely large number of citizens’ constitutional right in complete jeopardy. The questions and documents asked for were also not connected with the eligibility in the Electoral Rolls to enable the right to vote. Now, in hind sight, it is clear that the whole process has degenerated into an indulgence in mass disenfranchisement in dissonance with the provisions of Article 326.
Right at the outset, entire opposition and the civil society had pointed out that this is the consequence that it was headed for. After Bihar itself, this had become apparent when 65 lakh voters were deleted.
But very little factual evidence was presented to substantiate these drastic deletions. It was also clear that the ECI’s structure and resources were totally Inadequate in handling the monumental ambition that Gyanesh Kumar was projecting.
Therefore, it is safe to presume that the entire exercise was obviously designed to dovetail it to Hindutva ideas and the BJP political campaign about India being swamped by infiltrators from across the border. However, even after the completion of the process across the states, save Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, and the deletion of thirteen and a half crore voters, the ECI has not been able to produce reliable evidence about the numbers of non-citizens or infiltrators. The objective was to create a sense of uncertainty particularly among the vulnerable –the poor, Dalits, tribals, migrants, Muslims and women. The deletions show a disproportionately larger share of these sections.
The investigation of Indian Express published on September 23, has confirmed the worst apprehensions posed in the last 16 months. The ECI was not taking decisions unanimously or even by majority. The contradiction of the two Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi with Gyanesh Kumar sharply focused on contentious issues often violative of statutory provisions. The charges were specifically on the change of the format of Form 6 without changing the relevant rules under the Election Law through Parliament, and the use of bulk submission of Form 7 for deletion of voters, by individuals, groups and even the ECI itself. Several decisions were taken without formal approval and meetings.
This was bound to happen. With the infrastructure and manpower resources at the disposal of the ECI, it was humanly impossible to successfully undertake the SIR, that led to the large-scale use of Artificial Intelligence and unauthorised, untested software, which contributed its fair share in mass disenfranchisement.
Graver still was the charge that the deployment of IT was done surreptitiously by making unauthorized changes and division of responsibilities by Gyanesh Kumar alone. The database of Electoral Rolls came to be centralised to an extent where the statutory role of the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) was denied outright.
The Express investigation cites specific instances in Goa and elsewhere. Additional reports from West Bengal have also shown through documentary proof in the proceedings of the Judicial Tribunals that bulk exclusion had happened at the instance of ECI itself, obviously without reference to the ERO. The centralised database also escaped any monitoring and audit, endangering its integrity, which is at the heart of any roll revision process. Obviously, with the investigation validating the suspicion, the massive public outcry is an inevitable consequence.
Government’s complicity has been established in rejection of the Supreme Court’s proposal for reconstituting the committee for appointment of CEC and ECs with the inclusion of CJI.
Therefore, this is the crudest neofascist attack leading to a silent genocide where 20 per cent of voters have been done away with. The only way out to restore the credibility of the electoral process and democracy is to remove Gyanesh Kumar as early as possible. Had there been an iota of doubt about the veracity of the Express investigation‘s conclusions, the official press release of the ECI actually substantiates those findings. Together with this, the forthwith scrapping of the SIR itself will be another important step. The extent of subversion can be understood from the manner in which anew category was invented in the Apps for the BLOs in the wake of outrage on results of SIR in Delhi. To deal with the negative fallout, VIP voters were sought to be restored in the rolls on a fast track. Condemnation has been raging at the cold-blooded assassination of ‘one person, one vote’ principle.
Therefore, without further dalliance these steps should be ensured. The highest judiciary which has already been at fault by allowing the SIR to inflict this bodyblow on electoral democracy, cannot escape its accountability. The government of course, has to answer for the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar, with the two other Commissioners helping to bring out the damning facts. BJP leaders including several Chief Ministers are going all out to defend Kumar.
It has now become a central question for the survival of our democracy and the constitutional order, since its inception in 1950. Citizenship of massive number of Indians are facing a huge question mark. There is no other option left but to remove Gyanesh Kumar and scrap SIR. (IPA Service)
