AA Edit | Will Voter List Row Give Opposition a Chance to Unite in Bihar?

The fight of the Opposition parties against the SIR or the special intensive revision of voters’ lists in Bihar has entered a new phase with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the petitions moved by several leaders against the exercise.

There have been lingering doubts about the SIR from the beginning, and the repeated clarifications issued by the Election Commission of India have hardly allayed them. While the EC insists that the SIR is aimed at inclusion — that is, to include every eligible voter in the list as per the Constitution and various laws — the Opposition claims that it is aimed at exclusion, especially of the people in society’s weaker sections. It will result in the violation of the Constitution and the laws, including the Representation of the People’s Act, and not their furtherance, they point out.

Most lawyers told the apex court while moving their petitions that very little time — less than a month — was given to voters for proving their citizenship, and it will end up disenfranchising a substantial number of them, especially those who don’t have much in terms of educational documents to prove their case. Given the way the bureaucracy handles the delivery of citizen services at the bottom level, there is merit in the argument raised by these lawyers.

The Election Commission has also said that people should have their names on the voters’ list where they normally reside and not where they have a home, and this will further complicate the issue as many may not have a document to prove their domicile at their place of work. The very short time span they get to organise documents will, in effect, result in them losing their voting right in their ancestral village, while the red tape will ensure that the documentation gets delayed for months on end at their place of work. The net result will be that there will be Indian citizens who will not be able to be part of the democratic exercise of selecting their rulers.

The EC must bear in mind that there will be support for all that it does to make the voters’ list foolproof by ensuring that the names of all the eligible voters are there on the list, but it needs to also understand that a single eligible voter missing from it will undo everything it has done, as it amounts to the denial of legitimate democratic rights of the citizen. The repeated averments of the EC on helping the electors complete the process will have credibility only if it goes the extra mile and lists the last voter.

The Opposition contends that the exercise, if proved a success in Bihar, will be repeated in other poll-bound states such as West Bengal. The fear of the Election Commission acting at the behest of the BJP has them coming together in Bihar. The main Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, along with the other INDIA bloc partners, will be part of an agitation on Wednesday against the SIR.

It appears that the SIR has given the Bihar Opposition parties — which have been fighting among themselves, openly or otherwise, on various issues including the allocation of seats for the ensuing Assembly elections — a platform to come together and raise their voices against what they see as an injustice to the people. Whether it can further consolidate Opposition unity and upset the formidable NDA applecart, which has started showing signs of imbalance with minor partners singing a different tune, remains to be seen though.

Politics apart, all the stakeholders must ensure that the name of every eligible citizen is on the voters’ list. Whatever it takes.