It’s deeply damaging for Indian democracy that the Election Commission of India regularly makes the headlines for unsavoury reasons. The charges range from inept revision of electoral rolls and disregard of complaints to selective application of the model code of conduct. The crescendo of complaints reached fever pitch this week as the Delhi SIR exercise revealed glaring lapses and the West Bengal SIR’s redress mechanism reported agonisingly slow progress.
At the same time, pleas challenging the method of selecting election commissioners themselves came up in the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma delivered a split verdict on referring the pleas to a Constitution Bench. The decision to constitute a larger bench now passes to the Chief Justice, whose replacement with a Union cabinet minister on the appointment panel is in question. Thus, the prospect of judicial delay clouds the horizon at a time crucial state elections loom large.
The Delhi SIR stands out as much for how many were struck off the voters’ list as for who were among them. Of the 1.45 crore voters, about 47.6 lakh names were taken off and 31.6 lakh sent notices—together almost half the national capital’s electorate. Among the latter were a former Deputy PM, a former Vice President, current and previous Chief Ministers of the state, and current and former Union cabinet ministers. If senior officials are facing such glitches, it raises more worrying questions of common citizens’ status. Inconsistent methods of serving notices are a cause for concern, with a large section of voters reporting ignorance of being taken off the rolls. By Wednesday, less than 3 percent of them had applied for inclusion.
In West Bengal, the latest numbers show it would take nearly 12 years for the ECI-appointed tribunals to address all disputed cases at the present rate of disposal. If an SC judge’s remark that some voters might have to skip one chance to vote seemed too casual for comfort, lakhs now face the prospect of missing two national elections.
While the deadline for filing claims in Delhi needs to be extended beyond September 30, the opposite needs to happen in West Bengal. The ECI needs to ensure far greater efficiency in the tribunals’ work. Though the speed imperatives are different, both pose a serious challenge to electoral integrity.