EC must get to bottom of Bengaluru voter data theft row
The latest scam to shake up Karnataka is the alleged theft of voter details and large-scale deletion of voters’ names in some crucial constituencies in Bengaluru. At last count, the number was 27 lakh, a big chunk of Bengaluru’s 79 lakh voters. The common voter is still trying to process what happened, who is responsible, and how it could affect voting rights. Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute, an NGO hired for the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) to update the voters’ list ahead of the civic and assembly elections, allegedly went beyond its brief and collected voters’ caste data.
As details of the scam continue to tumble out, several procedural violations are coming to light—that NGO workers took on the role of Booth Level Officers and undertook household surveys privately without being accompanied by Election Commission staffers. It is said that more than 7,000 people, apart from Chilume staff, were hired on a contract basis for this work. This exercise appears to be a bid to profile voters and delete names en masse, revealing an insidious plot of voter fraud. The ramifications are wide and deep, hitting at the very roots of democracy and depriving a section of citizens of the constitutional right to franchise.
The needle of suspicion points to those who might want to access the data and gain by manipulating voter ratios in some constituencies. The opposition has raised a storm and urges all communities, especially minorities, to check the voter list. In a country where caste and religion can carve the electorate into voting blocs, deleting names is advantageous to the political leaders behind this racket.
The Congress has raised the pertinent point that Form 7 is required to delete a voter’s name and sought to know who has signed lakhs of these forms. The Election Commission has ordered a probe, and five people were arrested and are being questioned, including the NGO founder Ravikumar, but a clear picture is yet to emerge. There are also allegations that he has strong links with powerful people. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who has strongly defended his government, also directed officials to probe such exercises carried out since 2013. The scandal only shows that our constitutional bodies are in peril, and it is up to the Election Commission and courts to bring back some order.