The Supreme Court’s warning that it would set aside the entire Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and also other states speak volumes about the depths to which the Election Commission (EC) of India has sunk in recent times. What should have been a transparent and well-organised exercise is today steeped in a huge row. To start with, the poll panel’s removal of as many as 65 lakh “voters” from the state’s electoral rolls is in itself hugely scandalous. The state’s total electorate is less than eight crore – meaning about one-tenth of the “voters” have been removed in what was claimed to be a cleansing operation. In the first place, if these were fake voter names, the EC owes an explanation as to why such a huge rot has set in directly under its watch in Bihar over the past years.
Clearly, the EC was blinking and looking the other way when such a huge fraud took place in Bihar. Now, EC is going for a nation-wide SIR “to set wrongs right.” If this exercise is done in an effective manner, it would open a can of worms. Chances are that the electoral rolls in all states were largely tampered. Alertness was obviously not a part of the present EC’s very being. This raises important issues. The very sanctity of the election process in a vaunted democracy like India has been called into question. Manipulations of a high order have been taking place, mostly before each election, mainly by well-endowed political establishments or the ones that rule the respective states. In Bihar, known for its weak law and order, chances are that the electoral rolls were manipulated by one or the other regional party, or even the BJP, with a view to subverting the people’s will and grabbing power through foul means. This reaffirms the view that governance in this country has largely gone to the dogs due to the sway of scheming, unscrupulous politicians – unlike in the early years of Independence when the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had zealously put systems in place and respected them. For today’s politicians who handle power, they have no qualms in going to any lengths, including indulging in corruption, so as to also remain in power and keep warming their seats.
Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar, for instance, keeps winning elections and running governments in iterations, through multiple terms without bringing in any visible development in the backward state. The jaded political figure changed colours like the chameleon at the approach of each election and supped with rival political formations with the sole aim of continuing as chief minister. A point to note about Narendra Modi’s term as prime minister is that while his government boasts about infra development, he hardly bothered about systems being subverted by vested interests. A modern India cannot be built just by an infra push or by the purchase of a few military jets. The uncouth who subvert the systems go unchallenged and unpunished. They are having the last laugh.
