Are we a Republic of Fools to the ECI?

Exactly what we’d feared has come to pass. A mad, mad decree — surely Tughlaq’s envy — is issued in Delhi. It lands in Bihar and all hell breaks loose. Now that the genie is out of the bottle and the Election Commission of India’s ‘special intensive’ mess impossible to contain, it’s busy fabricating a cover-up story.

In the morning papers, the ECI puts out an ad. In the evening, it issues a denial.

Reports pouring in from various parts of Bihar are deeply troubling. But instead of addressing the problem on the ground, the Commission wants to shoot the messenger — and brazen it out by advertising absurd numbers. An institution once counted among the most trusted in the country has become a joke.

Time to ask the eminences currently heading the Election Commission of India some blunt questions:

#1

When the new CEC (chief election commissioner) took charge, the ECI made quite a song and dance about its commitment to ‘consultation and dialogue’, about holding more than 4,000 meetings with political parties in two months. Question: in any of those meetings, did you even hint that you were planning a ‘special intensive revision’ of the entire country’s voter list? Before taking such a dramatic step, should you not have consulted political parties across the country — especially in Bihar, where elections were to be held soonest?

*** NOTE TO READERS ***

Thanks to the ECI’s dodgy ‘clarifications’ and shifting narrative, confusion reigned among voters in Bihar when our print edition of 13 July, in which this article was to be published, went to press. We paused production to take note of the Supreme Court’s intervention on Thursday, 10 July.

We note, therefore, that the court has allowed the SIR to continue even as it questioned the timing of the exercise and the locus of the ECI to verify citizenship. The court also urged the ECI to admit Aadhaar, Voter ID and PDS ration cards as valid documents — or to explain why they were not valid.

The ECI has to respond by 21 July and the next court hearing is on 28 July. This article continues below...

***

#2

Since 2003, the Election Commission had put an end to intensive revisions — i.e., creating an entirely fresh electoral roll.

What prompted you to reverse that decision?

The reasons you’ve offered — urbanisation, migration, duplicate entries — couldn’t those be addressed through a special and thorough revision of the existing rolls? Why throw out the old list and start from scratch?

Did the Election Commission assess the pros and cons before taking this decision? Was there even an internal consultation? Can that file be made public?

#3

You’ve chosen to base this fresh revision on the 2003 voter list. But that list too was created by revising an older list. Back then, voters weren’t asked to produce proof either.

So what makes the 2003 list ‘authentic’ and the ones after that suspect? By that logic, is the Election Commission admitting that every election held after 2003 used a flawed voter list?

#4

For those not on the 2003 list, you’re asking for one of 11 specific documents. Is the Election Commission confident that every Indian citizen possesses at least one of these documents? Has the Commission examined what percentage of people in Bihar actually have them? If yes, why not release that data?

And if not, why ignore the word of experts who’ve shown — using government data — that not even half of Bihar’s population have these documents?

#5

Why doesn’t the Election Commission accept common documents like Aadhaar, ration cards or MGNREGA job cards — the ones most common folk have? What’s the difference between these and the 11 ‘valid’ documents? If a residence certificate issued against Aadhaar is valid, why not the Aadhaar card itself? And why won’t the Commission accept its own photo ID card?

#6

Why did you choose Bihar to launch this ‘special intensive revision’ exercise — and that, just four months before elections?

Hadn’t you already completed a revision of Bihar’s voter list in December? Were there any major complaints of fraud about that list from any political party? Did Bihar, like Maharashtra, see a sudden, inexplicable jump in voter numbers? Did any party or group demand that the list be scrapped?

#7

Why was this B.I.G. directive to be implemented at just 12 hours’ notice? Did you really believe that you could issue an order from Delhi in the evening and start distributing forms the next morning at 97,000 polling booths in Bihar? Do you not know how long it takes to print forms for 8,00,00,000 [8 crore] names? Or that 20,000 of those 97,000 booths didn’t even have Booth Level Officers (BLOs) — and still don’t, two weeks on?

#8

Why only one month to complete such a massive and complex exercise? Has anything of this scale — affecting crores of people — ever been pulled off in a month? The Bihar caste survey, which didn’t even require people to fill forms or submit documents, took five months. And now you think you’ll pull off a miracle in one month — in the middle of the monsoon and flood season? What world do you live in?

#9

Let’s say you made a mistake — whether in haste or under pressure. Why not just admit it? Why these endless excuses? You know very well this revision has nothing to do with weeding out duplicate voters. So why trot out such flimsy arguments? How many complaints has the Commission received about illegal foreign nationals in Bihar’s new 2025 voter rolls? If none, why use that as a pretext?

#10

You know full well that of the 4.96 crore voters on the 2003 Bihar list, some 1.5 crore are either dead or have left the state. Why keep repeating that 4.96 crore people won’t have to show documents? Do these lies befit an institution like the ECI?

#11

You’ve lately been releasing outrageous statistics every day — and people are laughing at you. Barely half the population has even received forms, yet you claim that 36 per cent have already filled and submitted their forms!

If that is true, why not publish the names? If not—who are you trying to fool?

Or as they may say in snippy Bihari style: का बाबू, पब्लिक के बुड़बक समझे हो का?