Last year, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process was undertaken by the ECI, which deprived lakhs of voters of their democratic rights. Though it was clear that this attack was carried out by the fascist BJP from behind the scenes, the ECI has maintained that it is an independent body, free from any outside influence.
This illusion was however broken with the release of an investigative report by the Indian Express. The report showed that on many occasions two of the three member election commission – EC Sandeep Sukhbir Sandhu and EC Vivek Joshi – had expressed dissent on the record to the chief election commissioner – Gyanesh Kumar – 14 times over 10 months. The dissent constituted largely of objections to new voter registration, deletion and restoration of voters in the rolls; filing of appeals against orders restoring voters in the SIR process; and the custody, and security, of the entire electoral roll itself.
The objections also extended from the question in Form 6 of the SIR, which asked applicants whether their grandparents were listed in the previous SIR, to highlighting the fact that state-level election officials reported that they did not have proper and complete access to the ERONet portal, the digital system through which electoral rolls are maintained. The report lays bare the fascist Hindutva government’s attempts to weaken people’s democratic rights and cement its hold on state power by further centralising the ECI.
The report also goes into detail on objections raised during the West Bengal and Goa elections where issues of voter disenfranchisement were at the forefront with lakhs of people being deleted from the rolls and facing lengthy appeals processes. In fact in West Bengal, where the SIR targeted primarily Muslims, the BJP’s food and supplies department is attempting to deny PDS rations to citizens who have been deleted from the rolls during SIR.
The idea of free and fair elections has always remained a distant dream for the people of this land, from panchayat, taluk and district level rigging to large-scale, state-backed rigging, as witnessed in the 1987 Kashmir elections, and the union government dissolving democratically elected state governments. This decimation reached new heights with the fascist BJP coming to power in 2014. The report by the Indian express is a testament to this, it demonstrates how this fascist government is not even attempting to maintain the illusion of democracy. Progressive forces across the country have called for the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, with nationwide protests planned if these demands are not met. But reflecting on the past, we must understand that the issue goes far beyond a mere resignation. A system that allows fascists to take over so easily is not a system that can simply be reformed.
