Descent into farce, Pg10

Key Highlights:

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) is conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 12 States and Union Territories.
• In West Bengal, elderly residents faced difficulties attending eligibility hearings, leading to ECI ordering home verification.
• The ECI conditionally halted hearings of "unmapped" voters due to software issues, raising concerns about procedural fairness.
• Provisional data indicates over 6.5 crore deletions from electoral rolls, suggesting methodological problems.
• Uttar Pradesh postponed the draft roll publication to January 6, with approximately 2.89 crore names deleted.
• Tamil Nadu and Gujarat saw significant deletions followed by rapid inclusions, indicating enumeration flaws.

Detailed Insights:

• The ECI's ad hoc use of software, including junking de-duplication software in Bihar, has created confusion and distress.
• Concerns have been raised that the ECI is using the electoral roll update as a de facto citizenship screening exercise.
• Inconsistencies and anomalies in draft electoral rolls have been flagged, including issues identified by data-driven investigations.
• The high number of deletions suggests methodological problems and poor implementation of the SIR exercise.
• The situation in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat indicates a haphazard enumeration phase, with large-scale deletions followed by additions.
• The Court's intervention has been limited, and a comprehensive review of the SIR procedure for constitutionality is needed.
• The current situation threatens the principle of universal adult franchise, requiring urgent attention and rectification.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Electoral Roll: A list of persons eligible to vote in an election.
• Universal Adult Franchise: The right of all adult citizens to vote, regardless of wealth, income, gender, race, ethnicity, belief, or social status.
• De-duplication: The process of removing duplicate entries from a dataset, such as an electoral roll.