Reports say the commission has granted an additional week “for sharing details of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate electors by the booth level officers (BLOs) with the booth level agents (BLAs) before preparing the draft rolls so as to ensure full transparency”
The Election Commission’s decision to extend by one week the entire schedule of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union territories is welcome in that the poll panel has finally shown some sensitivity towards the demands that the stakeholders have raised about the exercise. Reports say the commission has granted an additional week “for sharing details of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate electors by the booth level officers (BLOs) with the booth level agents (BLAs) before preparing the draft rolls so as to ensure full transparency”. In essence, the BLOs get an extension of their deadlines by a week.
The EC has been extremely unresponsive to the demand by various stakeholders for a relaxed timeline for the completion of the exercise all these days. The voters’ list is one of the foundations of the entire election process which is an essential ingredient of a functional democracy. The Constitution has empowered the EC with the power and responsibility to ensure that the elections are fair and free. It is incumbent upon the poll body to exercise those powers to fulfil the responsibility and ensure that all and only bona fide voters get a chance to be part of the democratic process.
The EC tested the waters in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections there, drawing the ire of the Opposition political parties with its tough deadline and impossible conditions. It took the decisive intervention of the Supreme Court to make the EC see reason. It was forced to accept Aadhaar as one of the documents that an eligible voter can present in order to remain present on the voters’ list. It also agreed to the order of the SC to publish the deleted names on the list.
The intervention was forced by the EC’s refusal to acknowledge the basic premise of the exercise that it must be an inclusive process, and not an exclusive one. It is an unpardonable injustice if an otherwise eligible voter is denied his place on the final list for whatever reasons. At no point in history has the EC been so callous about this very important condition that it rushed through it. Several states had pointed out eminently admissible reasons for an extended timeline. An example is Kerala where elections to the local self-governments are being held on December 9 and 11, while the SIR exercise has to be completed on December 4. It is the same persons who will be on the field as part of the election campaign who will later turn BLAs. The mix up is highly likely to affect the process.
The close deadline for the completion of the process has driven BLOs across the states into a tizzy; several have complained of unbearable pressure from their higher-ups. Instances of suicide have also been reported from several states. The EC, however, remained unmindful of the exigencies and pressed ahead with the process until the chief electoral officers updated it with the ground realities.
India has survived as a democracy till date thanks to the attention people who ran it showed to the demands that have come up from the bottom all these decades. The Election Commission, however, is breaking that tradition, rushing to meet some deadline it has set for itself, for reasons only it can explain. It pays if the EC listens to the voices from the ground, now and always.
