Credibility of SIR exercise under a cloud

Even as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is going in full swing in nine States and Union Territories, an increasing number of cases of ‘ghost complaints’ raising objections against the citizenship of genuine voters are coming to notice. These complaints are casting doubt over the credibility of the entire exercise of SIR that has been taken up by the Election Commission of India for the last one year. 

In the words of Chief Election Commissioner Mr Gyanesh Kumar, the EC’s SIR drive is intended to purify the electoral rolls. But the spate of complaints against chunks of voters and reports of these complaint being filed on behalf of ghost objectors under Form 7 of the Election Commission raise doubts if certain forces or some elements interested in reshaping the electorate for the ruling dispensation at the Centre, are working in tandem to remove electors not likely to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies.

In fact, the widespread instances of Form 7 lend credibility to the campaign of ‘Vote Chori’ (stealing of votes) being waged by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. While the first such objections were noticed in Karnataka’s Aland and Mahadevapura constituencies and are now actively being pursued in the court following a criminal case against an objector from Maharashtra, dozens of such cases have cropped up in Haryana and West Bengal.

 Form 7 is a statutory tool that allows any individual to object to a name on the voter list. This triggers a notice from the Election Commission to the voter under Form 14 to prove his or her bona fides as a voter. Curiously, the provisions do not enable a voter who has been objected to, to know the name of the complainant. 

According to the Election Commission’s admission there is no cap on how many Forms 7 a single person can submit to question the legitimacy of a voter residing in the same constituency. But the internet being a worldwide network, it has come handy for the objectors to assume a local identity and file objections. Several electors in West Bengal who possess passports for several decades and have served under the state government, have received summons from the Election Commission.

In several cases, the objectors have themselves denied filing objections thereby exposing the loopholes in the procedure. In one case, 20 objectors were found to have filed objections against 95 votes on the rolls. Verification exercise by EC officials revealed that the phone numbers provided by the objectors were non-functional. The pattern of complaints and objections have set off alarm whether the entire exercise of SIR is turning out to be a campaign to weed out voters from marginalised communities. If that happens, it will be an exercise in mass disenfranchisement rather than inclusion.