The sanctity of the poll rolls lies in its upholding the right to vote
The sanctity of the poll rolls lies in its upholding the right to vote. No citizen who is eligible should be denied his basic democratic right. It was this foundational truth that was upheld by the commonsense approach of the Supreme Court to the Special Intensive Revision exercise the Election Commission is undertaking and which was vehemently opposed by those who had no reason to trust the intentions of the keepers of the poll rolls.
The EC’s right to update the rolls was never in question except in the plaints of lawyers, who too were not representing petitioners who wanted the initiative to be stopped. And yet there were too many questions hanging over the modality of updating the rolls so close to the elections. To sort the rolls rather than “fix” them is the bounden duty of the EC, but the way in which it wished to go about doing it had raised too many queries.
The wisdom of the court’s guidance was nowhere more apparent than in its appeal to the good sense of the roll keepers to accept such common identity documents as the Aadhaar, the EC’s own voter ID cards and ration cards. Most people are armed with these, especially in the state of Bihar not too well-known for progress into the digital age, and they cannot be denied these instruments when it comes to proving their right to vote in the place that they are normally residents of, or “hail” from the state as is the term used in India.
It is now up to the EC to ensure that the list of identity documents that can be accepted and required for the revision of the rolls is applicable uniformly across Bihar. It must accept that the object of the exercise is to serve democracy’s universal franchise and not to deny any set of voters because of their supposed preference for one political alliance over the other of the two dominant ones in the country.
The timing of the exercise, which began very close to the polls that are due before the end of the year, was what raised the hackles, along with polarising politics with leaders of all Opposition parties and NGOs being petitioners. The EC’s argument against accepting Aadhaar was specious, and it was no surprise that it was told that citizenship is not its business so much as determining whether residency is proved and the choice of casting the vote or not is upheld because it is every citizen’s right.
India’s version of democracy has thrived on people being able to periodically cast their vote in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Those who have lost the polls in recent times have tended to blame the electronic voting machines, but without ever providing conclusive proof that they could be tampered with. Now that a fundamental resource like the poll rolls is being questioned, it is up to the EC to prove that what is fair is not only being done but is also seen to be done.
Everything else, like the poll rolls expanding with a segment of the population attaining the voting age, is secondary. It is up to the EC to ensure that anyone who is denied being on them or staying enrolled for any reason is given a fair hearing. And then comes the even greater priority of ensuring a fair count of the votes cast.
