The massive rally the INDIA bloc organised in Delhi on Sunday demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar for striking off the names of crores of bona fide voters from the electoral roll during the special intensive revision (SIR) signals the ability of the Opposition to keep the momentum of the political movement that targets the CEC and the Narendra Modi government which supports him. This, coupled with the recent observations of the Supreme Court, makes it untenable for the EC to go ahead with the SIR process as it is now. The mammoth gathering also puts a question mark on the legitimacy of the government’s continued support for the CEC and SIR process and the cost it will have to pay for it.
It is an undeniable fact that the SIR protest has given a political direction and platform for the INDIA bloc where every ally, even estranged ones, can join forces. The Trinamul Congress, which has had a troubled relationship with the bloc, is now a formidable part of the formation. The Biju Janata Dal, a former ruling party of Odisha, has now joined the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, though it is not part of the INDIA bloc. The notable absentee was the DMK, one of the founding members, thanks to the avoidable haste the Congress demonstrated to jump ship in Tamil Nadu and join the C. Joseph Vijay cabinet. However, the TVK was on board an anti-SIR protest in Chennai recently.
As it stands today, the Opposition bloc has been able to put forward a cohesive argument against the SIR process and the CEC, who orchestrated it. There is no justification for the EC to go outside the mandate of the law and make the process an exclusionary one. It has been pointed out that a person enters the electoral roll after going through a process laid down in the law and that the EC can remove one only through such a process. More reports are coming these days on how the EC has invented and used a tool called “logical discrepancy” to strike names off the roll and how Form 6 for new voters has been tampered with and how Form 7, used to raise a complaint against the continuance of a voter on the role, has been misused. The limiting of access to data at the EC headquarters in violation of the law is another critical point.
Vitiating a solemn process with such harmful steps cannot go unquestioned, and that is what India is witnessing at the moment. Universal adult franchise was a unique achievement India attained when it was born as a republic; several of the world’s great democracies took decades and even centuries to come to such an understanding that every citizen has a vote and every vote carries same value. The SIR now comes out as a tool to undermine this fundamental element of our democracy.
The demand for the righting of the wrongs committed in the name of SIR is a logical, legitimate and democratic one, and must be heeded. It is in the interest of democracy that everything that went wrong must be accounted for and the perpetrators brought before the law. It is for the government, the Supreme Court and the EC to decide how it will approach this vital issue.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
