{"id":268485,"date":"2025-08-06T00:19:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=268485"},"modified":"2025-08-06T00:19:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:49:44","slug":"are-dead-going-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/06\/are-dead-going-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Are dead going to vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bihar SIR vs Vote-Bandi<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Poonam I Kaushish<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s the silly season in political Delhi. That time when Parties sniff for issues to score points against each other. An on-going tu-tu-mein-mein to ensure their rightful place in the political sun. A lot of hot air juxtaposed with grandiose schemes and no action. Enough to make the headlines and their presence felt.<\/p>\n

No, I am not talking of the finger-pointing on Operation Sindoor in Parliament or Vice President Dhankar\u2019s resignation dhamaka but the brouhaha over Election Commission (EC) Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls from scratch.<\/p>\n

Questionably, is it a storm in a tea cup? Or vote-bandi, as Opposition alleges. Given preparing a pure voter list in a transparent manner is the foundation for free and fair elections and a strong vibrant democracy.<\/p>\n

Clearly, cleansing the electoral cesspool which is the root cause of all evil in our polity is a topic which gets Parties goat causing consternation and angst all round. With Congress\u2019 Rahul Gandhi calling SIR \u201ccomplete nonsense and exercise of exclusion as it is being carried out with only months to go before the Bihar election.\u201d Others chorus, \u201cWas the summary revision in January flawed and a flop?\u201d<\/p>\n

Countered Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, \u201cWhy the big fuss. We have asked for voters to furnish any of 11 documents. Should we allow dead and bogus voters to vote? In some cases, enumeration forms of even dead persons are being submitted. This is against the Constitution.\u201d According to him of 7.23 crore voters over 22 lakhs were dead, 7 lakhs registered in multiple places and 35 lakh untraceable comprising 6% of registered voters. Even as voters have a month\u2019s window to point out wrongful exclusion or inclusion.<\/p>\n

Predictably, as is the Opposition wont the matter reached Supreme Court which yesterday (Monday) refused to stop EC from publishing the draft electoral roll for Bihar, drawn up following SIR 1 August. Asserting its suggestion to EC in its 10 July 10 order to consider Aadhaar and voter identity cards as they have a presumption of correctness because these are authenticated documents to verify genuine voters for the purpose of updating the rolls. But left it to the discretion of the poll body whether to accept or reject them.<\/p>\n

It concurred with EC\u2019s reservations of several fake cards could have been issued as \u201cany document on Earth can be forged. Wherever you find forgery on case-to-case basis, there should not be en masse exclusion rather en masse inclusion.\u201d Adding, it could always step in and strike it down if there is any illegality.<\/p>\n

The petitioners read Opposition\u2019s Congress, RJD, Samajwadi, SS (UBT), CPM etc averred SIR process was hasty, announced barely four months before election, which made the timelines enormously challenging administratively and impossible to meet \u2014 3 crore voters in 30 days \u2014-\u00a0 could disenfranchise crores, especially Muslims, Dalits and poor migrants. As in Bihar with its poverty, illiteracy and migration birth and matriculation certificates, permanent residence proof and passports are not widely available. Also, determination of citizenship was not EC\u2019s function but Union Government\u2019s prerogative.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Aadhar is considered an omnibus identity card especially among underprivileged who might not have possess any other document. The EC could use electoral rolls updated January as SIR violated Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and Rule 21-A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, both of which require adequate procedural safeguards.<\/p>\n

The EC\u2019s argument of Aadhaar, voter ID and Ration cards not being reliable documents for inclusion in electoral roll is valid since Aadhaar is proof of residence and not of citizenship or date of birth. Also, Representation of People Act, 1950 provides only \u2018ordinary residents should be included in a constituency\u2019s electoral rolls and migrants who have moved out would be included in their current residential place. To provide a legal analogy, inclusion of an ineligible name in the electoral roll is like a guilty person going scot-free.<\/p>\n

SIR, is, indeed, a step in the right direction to ensuring only genuine Indian voters are included. Given, EC is Constitutionally obligated to make certain that only Indian citizens are registered\u00a0 in electoral rolls. Hence it has to seek proof of citizenship.<\/p>\n

Pertinently, Article 324 empowers EC to oversee elections and Article 326 directs the franchise be limited to adult Indian citizens. The updating of electoral rolls is supported by the Registration of Electors Rules 1960 and Representation of the People Act 1950.<\/p>\n

The EC commenced SIR exercise under Section 21(3) of Representation of People Act, 1950 last month to 8 crore Bihar voters which will conclude with publication of the revised final electoral roll end September as the last SIR was carried out for Bihar in 2003.The reason for this is the large-scale additions and deletions to electoral rolls over the last 20 years due to rapid urbanisation and migration which increased the possibility of duplicate entries in the electoral roll. The urgency stems from elections to Bihar Assembly due in November.<\/p>\n

Undeniably, SIR is, indeed, a step in the right direction to ensure a truly representative Legislature \u2014 Parliament and the State Assemblies. Accordingly, the EC intends carrying\u00a0 out SIR for the entire country.<\/p>\n

Over the years, a recalcitrant polity has wrought havoc. Immoral and unaccountable, it has misused and abused the voters trust.\u00a0 As caste and creed become the tour de force of vote-bank politics in Bihar Parties want to use this card along-with freebies and money to buy votes as winning at all cost is the new normal of political morality.<\/p>\n

The Opposition needs to realize globally countries are becoming increasingly protectionist and throwing out illegal migrants. Only recently, US President Trump sent planeloads of illegal Indians back.<\/p>\n

What next? As India readies for State polls this year and next, what is important, indeed crucial, is for India\u2019s leaders to recognize that EC has refined, fine-tuned, supervised elections and ensured our polls set the gold standard for conduct of free and fair polls. Simultaneously, voters are not powerless. They are their own masters and have the ultimate power to vote a good Government back into office or to sack a bad one.<\/p>\n

True a beginning has been made in eradicating fake voters as elections are the bedrock of our democracy. Time for our leaders and Parties to think deeply going beyond political ideologies and invest in a healthy and vibrant democracy. True one can question the Election Commission\u2019s credibility, transparency and objectivity but also have the capacity to listen to the voice of reason and rely on facts.<\/p>\n

Certainly, we have still a long long way to go before we can make elections in India honestly free, fair and without fear.\u00a0 Something is, no doubt, better than nothing.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the license for brazen electoral corruption and political harlotry is far from ended. At stake is the sanctity of every citizen\u2019s constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to vote. What gives? \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bihar SIR vs Vote-Bandi By Poonam I Kaushish It\u2019s the silly season in political Delhi. That time when Parties sniff for issues to score points against each other. An on-going tu-tu-mein-mein to ensure their rightful place in the political sun. A lot of hot air juxtaposed with grandiose schemes and no action. Enough to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-268485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}