EDITORIAL 1: All parties should welcome SIR
Context
It is heartening to see the Election Commission of India (ECI) stand firm on its now-complete Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming elections to the state legislature.
Elections in India
- India opted for universal adult franchise at the time of Independence, which was not so common even in Western countries.
- The US reached that stage only in 1965 through the Voting Rights Act. Full suffrage became a reality in the UK through the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, 1928.
- Learning about India’s decision, Britain’s then-Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, found it appropriate to warn Jawaharlal Nehru that the Asiatic republics are few and of recent establishment and their record is not very encouraging. They tend to degenerate into dictatorships or oligarchies.
- But the Indian leadership had decided, while drafting the Nehru Report in 1928, that every eligible citizen aged 21 years or above would have the right to vote.
- B R Ambedkar was insistent that it should be a fundamental right. However, in its wisdom, the Constituent Assembly decided to incorporate it not as a fundamental right under Part III of the Constitution, but as a constitutional right under Article 326.
The importance of SIR
- This distinction is important to keep in mind because too much is said about the burden of proof being shifted onto citizens under the SIR.
- The right to vote, being a constitutional right, is subject to scrutiny from time to time for the eligibility of a given individual.
- In fact, the Representation of the People Act clearly stipulates several disqualifications with respect to the right to vote.
- They include non-citizenship, being of unsound mind, convictions for certain offences, non-residency, and being in prison.
- It is in exercise of these provisions that the ECI sought to undertake this SIR. It concluded the first phase of door-to-door verification with the help of thousands of Block Level Officers (BLOs) and other officials.
- Setting aside criticisms, the ECI declared that 99 per cent of electors had been covered through this exercise and that it had helped the ECI identify 2.16 million voters who were dead.
- Another 3.15 million were found to have permanently migrated while one lakh people were untraceable.
- This number constitutes around 8 per cent of the total 72.1 million voters in Bihar. There shouldn’t be any controversy over those who are deceased or have migrated.
- Less than 1 per cent of voters failed to submit their forms about whom both the political parties and the ECI should seriously bother.
Electoral reforms
- Electoral reforms are never easy. It took four decades and an officer like T N Seshan to attend to booth capturing, bogus voting and impersonation.
- Seshan, a courageous officer, faced innumerable challenges when he attempted to clean up electoral rolls, introduce voter ID cards and force leaders to religiously follow the Model Code of Conduct, which was otherwise considered just a piece of paper by them.
- Attempts were made to impeach him in Parliament at least twice. Two additional election commissioners with equal powers were added, making the Commission a three-member body to curtail Seshan’s authority.
- Seshan’s efforts resulted in major reforms. More importantly, they gave teeth to the Commission, which was until then seen by the political class as a paper tiger.
- Subsequent election commissioners upheld the majestic and independent role of the Commission in conducting elections in a fair and transparent manner.
- Over the past few decades, India’s electoral system, despite being of humongous size with 960 million voters and one million polling stations, has proved to be one of the most successful and efficient systems, one that several countries wish to emulate.
Conclusion
The occasional revision of electoral rolls is a mandatory practice in any country. Given the large-scale migration happening in our country, the Commission’s decision to undertake an intensive revision of the rolls in the entire country, starting with Bihar, must be welcomed by all parties.