Millions in India stripped of vote before critical state election, as government seeks to ‘purify’ electoral roll

I’m trying to stay away from commenting too much about India’s internal affairs. But this is too important not to mention.

From The Guardian:

Millions of people in the Indian state of West Bengal have been stripped of their vote ahead of a critical state election this week, after a controversial electoral revision described by critics as a “bloodless political genocide” and mass disenfranchisement of minorities.

In West Bengal, a total of 9.1 million names have been deleted from the register, more than 10% of the electorate. While many were dead or duplicates, about 2.7 million people have challenged their expulsions, but still been removed.

The process of revising the electoral roll, known as Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has been taking place in states and territories across India, justified by the Narendra Modi government as a way to stop “infiltrators” – a pejorative term largely referring to illegal Muslim Bangladeshi immigrants – from voting.

The divisive exercise by the central Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government to “purify” the electoral roll – in the words of home minister Amit Shah – has led to a chorus of fury.

And:

SY Quraishi, the former election commissioner of India, was among those who raised concerns over the justification and the processes of SIR, both in West Bengal and other states, and said it raised serious questions over the election commission’s role.

“I feel very awkward and hesitant about commenting on my successor, but as a citizen, I see what is happening and I must speak out,” he said. “The SIR is completely unnecessary, it is designed to harass. Administratively it is a disaster and the intentions are not noble.

He added: “It took us 30 years to achieve 99% accuracy in the rolls. They expect to exceed this in three months. Why this frantic rush if the main objective is accuracy?”

For the “largest democracy in the world” to be removing voters from electoral rolls in such a rushed manner is a transparent attempt to shape political outcomes. One must note the BJP has never been able to achieve a foothold in West Bengal.

There has been a lot of criticism on BP about Pakistan’s lack of democratic credentials. Much of this criticism is justified. It is a fact that Pakistan has had three military coups in its history while India has largely remained an uninterrupted democracy–with the exception of the Emergency. However, this “Special Intensive Revision” indicates democratic backsliding.