India is the world’s largest democracy not because it has nearly 1 billion voters, the largest number in the world, but because this democracy operates through voter participation, a practice known as “participatory democracy.” The hallmark of this democracy is that every voter directly or indirectly participates in power. In a parliamentary democracy, this participation is determined by the ruling party and the opposition. In this system, governance is not simply based on majority rule, but rather involves the participation of all elected representatives. Therefore, the makers of our Constitution paid special attention to the importance of voters in India and decided that the Election Commission, an independent constitutional institution independent of the government, would be responsible for enrolling every adult citizen to vote. In a way, the makers of the Constitution entrusted the Election Commission with the primary responsibility for strengthening democracy. Therefore, this institution holds a unique and special place in India.
This institution is responsible for overseeing the purification of the voter list in the country and has been performing its duties with utmost dedication since independence. However, the current intensive voter list revision being carried out by the Election Commission has become a subject of controversy, with various opposition political parties appearing to oppose it. Differences of opinion on any issue or topic are natural in a democracy, but there are some theoretical questions on which disagreement cannot exist. For example, the Election Commission’s authority to prepare and purify the voter list cannot be questioned. Of course, questions can be raised about the practical method of carrying out this process, but the Election Commission’s authority cannot be challenged. Although this matter is pending in the Supreme Court and is being heard, how can the fundamental principles of Indian democracy be challenged? The opposition is questioning how the Election Commission can delete the names of millions of voters from the list in the name of intensive revision. Essentially, this question is meaningless, as the Constitution itself authorizes the Election Commission to include only legitimate Indian citizens in the voter list and adhere to the principle of “one person, one vote.” Therefore, if a person’s name is repeated in the voter list, it must be deleted, and the name of a deceased person must be removed from the voter list. Furthermore, the names of those who have migrated from one city or village to another must be regularized.
Today is the last day of Parliament’s winter session, and in the name of electoral reforms, there has been an open debate on the issue of thorough voter revision, but the opposition parties achieved nothing. The Election Commission’s work can only be taken to a certain extent within the parliamentary framework. This is because the Election Commission’s task of purifying the electoral rolls is entirely constitutional, but it also has to ensure that not a single legitimate voter’s name is deleted from the list. It is also constitutionally bound to do this. Therefore, the Election Commission’s work is not one-sided; it also has a responsibility to ensure that all citizens who reach the age of 18 in India each year become voters. This should be the objective of the thorough revision. From this perspective, there are increasing reports of citizens’ names being deleted from voter lists. Mamata Banerjee’s government in Bengal had launched a campaign against the intensive revision, openly challenging the Election Commission, threatening to launch a mass movement against it if it were to be carried out in her state. However, she could not stop the Election Commission’s constitutional work, and the Commission completed the first phase of the revision in West Bengal, finding the names of 5.8 million voters to be fake. Mamata Banerjee claimed that the Election Commission was acting as a wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, but all her claims and accusations have been proven false. The Election Commission conducted the revision without discrimination and without any distinction between Hindus and Muslims. According to the draft of the state’s revised voter list, published last Tuesday, the number of voters in the state has now decreased from 76.6 million to 78 million. This represents a reduction of 5.8 million voters. The largest number of voter deletions occurred in Hindi-speaking and Hindu-majority areas, while the Muslim-majority areas saw relatively fewer voter declines.
This proves the impartiality of the Election Commission and exposes the baseless allegations being leveled against it. Voter list revision is underway in 12 states (including Union Territories). Of these, in five states – West Bengal, Rajasthan, Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry – a total of 1 crore 2 lakh voters have been reduced, which is around 7.6 percent. This shows that fake names are not less in the voter lists across the country. The opposition should now make allegations in this regard very thoughtfully and should not unnecessarily put the Election Commission in the dock.
