New Delhi, February 14 CPI(M) General Secretary M A Baby wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday, expressing "grave concern" over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls, and alleging that it "deviates sharply from established law, past practice, and constitutional principles".
He warned that conducting an extensive revision just months before elections within a compressed timeframe could "distort the electoral atmosphere" and increase the risk of errors and wrongful deletions.
"While we recognise that periodic revision of electoral rolls is a routine and essential democratic exercise, the manner, timing, and methodology of the present SIR deviate sharply from established law, past practice, and constitutional principles," he said.
The CPI(M) leader said that far from being a routine, transparent, and citizen-friendly process, the current SIR has turned into a "chaotic, arbitrary, and exclusionary exercise that threatens both the integrity of the electoral rolls and the fundamental right to vote".
"Undertaking an extensive and intrusive revision exercise just months before elections, within an unrealistically compressed timeframe, inevitably distorts the electoral atmosphere and is fraught with the danger of large-scale errors and exclusions," he said.
"As reports have indicated, this exercise has led to several booth-level officers succumbing to pressure and, unfortunately, taking their own lives. It has also led to distress among a number of voters who have also chosen the same path, particularly in West Bengal," he said.
Baby said that political parties were not taken into consideration ahead of the exercise, and imposing the burden on already enrolled voters to re-establish their eligibility, failing which they are threatened with deletion, is arbitrary, unlawful, and contrary to settled procedure.
The CPI(M) leader said that the implementation issues include missing forms, poor awareness of procedures, limited digital access, and stringent documentation demands, with marginalized groups and minorities, particularly rural women, being disproportionately affected.
"As we saw in Bihar, where the proportion of voters to population decreased, we fear the same will be repeated in other states as well," he said.
He referred to reports of the misuse of Form 7 for large-scale objections to voter names in some states, and warned that the design of the SIR risks resembling a citizenship verification exercise similar to the proposed NRC (National Register of Citizens) process, which could lead to selective disenfranchisement.
"Our apprehension that the design and implementation of the SIR would closely resemble the proposed NRC exercise, and would lead to the selective disenfranchisement of certain communities, is turning true," he said.
He said that the SIR in West Bengal has turned out to be one of the most controversial. "Large sections of the population are going through nightmares, and a number of voters have taken their own lives unable to cope with it," he said.
Baby said that the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, clearly lay down that in the case of an intensive revision, the Rules applicable to the first-time preparation of electoral rolls apply.
"Such a revision proceeds on a "blank roll" where additions are made. The present SIR does not begin with a blank roll, nor does it provide for systematic addition. Instead, it is designed to delete names, defeating the very purpose of the law," he alleged.
