By Arun Srivastava
Notwithstanding Supreme Court’s assurance to the petitioners, the opposition parties and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), to hear their pleas against SIR on August 12, the confidence level with which the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has been moving steadfastly and shifted its operational area as well as focus from Bihar to Bengal, sends a clear message that it has accomplished its mission of disenfranchising nearly 1 crore Bihar citizens for ever.
Through its action the most frightening message it has sent is Bihar is the home of around 65 lakh anti-nationals and foreigners. It may sound to be ludicrous. But it is reality. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is playing the most dangerous game, pushing the country to civil war. He ought to know that the Dalits, poor, proletariat whose right to vote are being snatched away by him, had fought a long protracted battle to get it. So far, the opposition parties and the Dalit and poor have been pursuing a democratic protest, but the adamant posture of the CEC has forced them to intensify their protest. Soon village level Peoples’ Courts across Bihar will be organised to thwart the design of the ECI.
It would be naïve to look at the move of CEC in a simplistic manner: Out of 7.89 crores people, 35 lakh have been identified as foreigners. The ECI has not come out with any plausible reason to prove its assertion. From August 1, the process of filing claim for inclusion of name has started. But ironically the ECI has yet not published booth wise voters’ list underlining the names of the missing, untraceable or dead persons. The entire process is wrapped in mystery.
With CEC subverting the electoral process in a systematic manner and demeaning the democratic character of the elections, the people are getting more frustrated and angry with the Supreme Court. They hold that instead of allowing the matter to linger, the apex court should have heard the case on an urgent basis. They argue, there must be some important cases before the apex court but the SIR issue is the most important as it affects the basic democratic character of the country and its functioning. It has also questioned relevance of the Constitution. ECI has been misusing granting of more time by the apex court to implement its malicious design.
The people are cut up at Tejashvi Yadav’s allegation against ECI of deleting his name from the voter list. Though the ECI has refuted his allegation and clarified that his name features in the list, its explanation has backfired. Tejashvi’s name is tucked with hundreds of persons living in one premises, other than his residence where he lives with his parents, wife and family members. It is quite intriguing what made ECI to delete his name from his residence and put it at some innocuous premises. CEC has no clarification. People strongly nurse the view that if apex court had put a stay on the operation of SIR, the ECI would not have resorted to such dirty game. They are in the state of stupor, why the apex court allowed it to carry on its activities even after being aware that ECI would implement its dirty agenda.
The figure 65 lakh is quite huge. Why this huge number of foreigners could not be detected even during the 2024 Lok Sabha election. While this number raises question on the credibility of the ECI, it points to a much deeper conspiracy. Now a question arises, once the ECI has declared them as foreigners or missing, what will Modi government do with these people? Will it allow them to live in India and survive on its resources? Or will Modi ask them to leave India and go back to the countries from where they have come? These two questions ought to be answered by Narendra Modi and his government. If the government plans to throw them out of India, in that case what should be process of eviction? Will Modi follow in the footsteps of his friend Donald Trump: fetter them and deport to their countries?
An issue which has shaken the Bihar administration has been the ECI identifying alive persons as dead. SIR reveals that around 22 lakh voters have died. It is strange and shocking too. Is it that during only in one year 22 lakh Biharis died?. This gives rise to suspicion that some dreaded disease must have hit the people of the state. Or, how else 22 lakh people would die in one year. How could this disease evade the attention of WHO or other organisations working in the field of health care?
If 22 lakh persons had died before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, then in that case one question crops up; why the ECI failed to detect these names and remove them from the voter’s list ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election? Will the Supreme Court during the hearing on August 12, order an enquiry to find out whether the dead people voted in 2024 LS election? In case if it is detected that dead persons had voted would it declare the 2024 election result as null and void and unseat the members already elected.
The most intriguing has been claim of CEC that around 35 lakh people were either untraceable or had permanently moved away. This is the most serious finding. A large number are missing, but neither the central or state government are aware of the reasons. Since CEC Gyanesh Kumar claims that ECI has the right to ascertain the nationality of the voter, is not his moral responsibility to find where these people have gone? Who are these persons? Why are they missing? He must explain what he has done to trace out these missing people.
Not only the ECI, even Amit Shah as the Home Minister owes an obligation to country and its people, to inform them what has happened to the missing or untraceable persons. A particularly striking development is the staggering 89% surge in “untraceable electors” within a mere 24 hours, jumping from 11,484 on July 22 to a jarring 1 lakh by July 23, 2025. It is also significant that on July 14 it had planned to delete the names of 35 lakh voters. But it increased to 56 lakhs by July 23.
In fact these developments make the people nurse the feeling that if Supreme Court really desired to clear the mess the CEC must not have dared to resort this nature of nasty activities. Rahul Gandhi was right in saying: “irregularities were taking place in the revision exercise in poll-bound Bihar. The Election Commission is not functioning as the ECI”. The actions of CEC Gyanesh Kumar make it explicit that like his political master he too treats Biharis as idiots. There is no ambiguity that ECI is determined to disfranchise Dalits, poor, minorities who are not likely to vote Modi. Tejashvi Yadav has also alleged that the ongoing SIR is a “conspiracy of the NDA to get favourable results in the poll.”
While Rahul Gandhi, alleged that the ECI is indulging in ‘vote chori’, he also revealed that Congress has “open and shut” evidence for it and he would explode the atom bomb about the poll irregularities by ECI at the right time. This threat coming from Rahul ought to be taken seriously. A couple of days back he told reporters in the Parliament House complex: “I am not saying this lightly. I am saying this with 100 per cent proof. As soon as we release it the whole country would know that EC is indulging in ‘vote chori’. It is doing it for the BJP,” he said. Later he also said “We have such proof that will show the whole country that the institution of the Election Commission does not exist. It has disappeared. It has taken us 6 months of non-stop work.”The coming meeting of India Bloc on August 7 may draw up a foolproof strategy to deal with ECI and SIR. (IPA Service)
