West Bengal elections
There has always been a never-ending list of things that enamours the world about the nation that is India. But perhaps the headline we have grown accustomed to seeing repeated across global media institutions has been around election time:
“India. The world’s largest democracy”
That a nation of India’s size, scale and diversity has been able to maintain a democratic system of government is a source of pride for so many people of Indian heritage – myself included. Indeed, I spoke to the ABC following the BJP’s successful bid for a third-term of Federal government and heralded the result as an example of a successful democracy in action.
However, recent news in relation to the elections in West Bengal and the ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (Revision) is alarming and should be cause for concern to all those who hold onto the values of democracy dearly – irrespective of political persuasion.
The Revision refers to a revision of the electoral rolls in India that has been argued to be a necessary intervention to ensure that deceased, incorrect and/or illegitimate voters are removed from the list of eligible voters. In theory, this intervention sounds a reasonable administrative task that one may expect of an electoral commission. In practice, the impact of the Revision is extremely troubling.
In the context of the recent elections in West Bengal, the Revision saw 9 million voters (a whopping 12% of West Bengal’s electorate) removed from the electoral roll. Given most elections are determined on a difference of a few percentage points, the change has massive consequences to the electorate and to any election result. Justice Bagchi of the Supreme Court himself is quoted observing this very concern.
Of course, one may argue that if 9 million voters were incorrectly included on the roll in the first place then the Revision has done an important job. The trouble is that no one can yet say that all 9 million who were removed were in fact removed correctly in the first place. Indeed, there have already been countless reports of individuals having been incorrectly removed from the roll despite having provided the required documentation to authorities. Statistically, the vast majority of those voters appear to be from disadvantaged, underrepresented and religious minority backgrounds.
Now it is true that these irregularities are not to be determined by simple folk like me, but by the wisdom of the courts. Indeed, several petitions and countless individual challenges were made disputing the validity of the removal of names from the electoral roll. However, the West Bengal elections proceeded without all of those cases having been resolved.
Accordingly, even the most ardent supporter of the Revision cannot deny that there is, at the very least, a possibility that millions of voters were incorrectly stripped of their right to vote. That possibility is a frightening threat to the core of what democracy is and brings us to the very heart of the storm cloud India’s democracy finds itself under as a result. The entire point of democratic elections is that everyone eligible to vote is entitled to have their voice heard at the ballot box – regardless of what their background or political beliefs are.
If it becomes true that even some portion of those voters removed from the roll had their voices silenced incorrectly, then it will not just be a moral tragedy. It will bring into question the very legitimacy of elections and government – that is, the very foundation of democracy in India and a principle that India has long heralded to be a core component of its national identity.
I want to make it clear that my point here is not about politics. I do not put forward any view on the actual domestic political battles of West Bengal. I do not lament the change in government, nor do I celebrate it. My only focus today is mourning the blow this saga has been to the foundations of the world’s largest democracy and the precedent that it may set for the future.
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