Why idea of free-fair polls in Bengal is ghorar dim
The state has seen an influx of illegal immigration from Bangladesh, leading to demographic changes in several districts. Retributive political violence, as seen after the last Assembly elections, also cast a cloud over the idea of participatory democracy.ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND SIR IN WEST BENGALEven as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise is underway in Bihar and speculated to begin in poll-bound Bengal next, Mamata Banerjee has openly opposed it, calling it a targeted move against Bengali voters. The Trinamool Congress leader, who has launched a Bhasha Aandolon from Rabindranath Tagore's Sanctuary Bolpur, has asserted that "people from Gujarat were preparing Bengal's [voters'] list".This even as the West Bengal CEO flagged major irregularities during sample checking of voter lists in South and North 24 Parganas, where 127 fictitious voters were allegedly entered by two Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) without BLO verification, reported The Economic Times newspaper on Wednesday.The SIR is a legal and essential exercise mandated under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, to ensure the accuracy and integrity of electoral rolls ahead of major elections.The tenure of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly ends in May 2026, with elections expected to be held earlier next year.MAMATA'S REMINDER TO BLOs ON DUTY STIRS DEBATEA recent reminder by Mamata Banerjee to the BLOs that they are state government employees before and after elections does not offer much hope on fair-play.At an administrative meeting on July 28, Mamata reminded the BLOs, who are officials of the state government, that they work for the Government of West Bengal, not the Election Commission of India (ECI), reported The Hindu.She directed them to ensure that not a single name is removed from the voter's rolls, adding not to "harass" voters by removing names from electoral lists."After the election is announced, it comes under [ECI's] purview. Before that, it is the state government, and again after the elections, it is the state government," she said.advertisementDuring elections, the Election Commission of India relies on government officials, including teachers, state employees and staff from some PSUs like nationalised banks, for conducting polls. The BLOs, who are state government employees, are mandated to assist in updating and verifying voter rolls.Critics, including BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, have argued that Mamata's "intimidatory statement" pressures BLOs to prioritise state loyalty over Election Commission of India (ECI) directives, potentially undermining impartial voter list updates.In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, Adhikari termed the Mamata's appeal as "direct and unwarranted interference", calling it an "attempt to influence the revision of electoral rolls for political motives", reported news agency PTI.WEST BENGAL CEO'S OFFICE UNDER STATE CONTROLMoreover, West Bengal is the only state where the CEO office operates under the Home and Hill Affairs department of the state government, the ECI recently flagged.The CEO's office also lacks financial and administrative independence.Last week, the ECI directed West Bengal to establish a separate election department to ensure institutional autonomy ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls."The Commission has noted the lack of financial and administrative autonomy available to the CEO, West Bengal, in the existing arrangement, wherein the CEO's office functions with limited financial powers relying on a minor permanent advance from the Finance Department. Further, the CEO's office has been categorised as a subordinate branch of the Home and Hill Affairs Department, which is led by a principal secretary-level officer, whereas the CEO himself is of ACS rank," the Election Commission wrote to the West Bengal Chief Secretary, in a letter dated July 17, reported The Indian Express.advertisementThe Commission also directed the Chief Secretary to declare the CEO's office as an independent one soon.The structural and organisational issue, as also flagged by the BJP, raises concerns about the ability to conduct unbiased elections, as the CEO's office remains financially and administratively tethered to the state, potentially compromising its neutrality.The Home, Hill Affairs, and Revenue departments are under CM Mamata Banerjee.BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya claimed that while the ECI aims to make the CEO's office more independent, the state government is resisting the move, "making it clear", he said, "who is trying to control the process", reported the newspaper.The ECI's push for a SIR of electoral rolls, which is speculated to be exercised next in West Bengal, has met resistance from Mamata.advertisementDEMOGRAPHIC SHIFTS IN BENGAL RAISE RED FLAGSRecent analyses highlight significant demographic changes in West Bengal, particularly in border districts, where the Muslim population has risen disproportionately over the last few decades. Many of the illegal migrants have been found to possess legal documents like the Aadhaar Card and Voter ID cards.This has put a question mark about the integrity of elections in the states where non-citizens are voting.Districts like Murshidabad and Malda have seen a notable rise in Muslim populations, with Murshidabad's Muslim share increasing from 63.7% in 2001 to 66.3% in 2011, and Malda from 49.7% to 51.3%.Many fear that the latest data, when released, will reveal even starker numbers.These shifts, coupled with reports of illegal migration from Bangladesh, have fuelled concerns about voter list manipulation.BJP leaders, including the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, have claimed that such changes enable the inclusion of "illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya voters" in electoral rolls, a charge Mamata Banerjee has dismissed as politically motivated.Last week, Adhikari claimed that a sharp rise of over 70,000 Form-6 applications, along with domicile certificates issued after July 25, aimed at "enroling illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants" signals voter roll manipulation.advertisement"Over 70,000 Form-6 applications have been submitted on average in the last week, a sharp rise from the usual 20,000-25,000, especially in Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Maldah, North Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, and North & South 24 Parganas districts," he wrote on X.In conclusion, the idea of free and fair elections in West Bengal remains elusive due to demographic changes, the state government's influence over electoral officers, and structural issues with the state poll body. Now, with the 2026 Vidhan Sabha polls approaching, these factors cast a shadow over the state's electoral integrity, making "ghhorar dim" an apt metaphor for an unattainable ideal.- EndsTune InMust Watch
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
RWAs step in as fear grips migrants over Gurugram police verification drive
As panic spreads across Gurugram's informal settlements amid an ongoing police verification drive to identify undocumented immigrants, several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have begun counselling domestic workers and dispelling fears that Indian citizens are being targeted. Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have begun counselling domestic workers and dispelling fears that Indian citizens are being targeted in Gurugram. (HT PHOTO) District police have also launched outreach efforts, sending teams to slum clusters in areas like Tigra, Chakkarpur, Wazirabad, and Jharsa to clarify that the verification is focused solely on identifying Bangladeshi nationals without valid documents. 'We are sending awareness teams to various settlements and slum areas to clarify that the verification is not against Indian citizens,' a senior police officer said. 'No person from Assam, Bihar, or West Bengal who holds Indian documentation should panic.' Police said so far 10 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been identified since the beginning of the drive in the first week of July. Despite these efforts, fear persists. Bengali-speaking residents have allegedly been asked to vacate their homes, heightening tensions. Ruchika Sethi Takkar, a resident of Sector 50, flagged reports of impersonation in Tigra. 'According to our community workers, Bengali tenants have been asked to leave by August 10 or face consequences. When I contacted the SHOs of Tigra and Sector 55/56, they categorically denied any involvement,' she said, calling for an urgent probe. To restore confidence, RWAs have begun holding awareness sessions. Kusum Sharma, chairperson of Suncity RWA in Sector 54, said over 200 domestic workers attended a counselling session addressed by the SHO of Sector 53. 'We assured them that Indian citizens need not worry. The police have shared the list of acceptable documents—Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card, or even parents' documents,' Sharma said. To be sure, no official circular or detailed protocol on what constitutes valid proof for staying in the city have been released yet. Vatika City RWA also hosted a police interaction session. 'There is no need for any special documentation from Bengal. That's a rumour,' said RWA president Shveta Paul. 'If anyone faces harassment by individuals claiming to be police or local authorities, they should contact the RWA or dial 112.' RWAs are also asking residents to maintain records of their staff's documents and remain vigilant. Some are issuing society-level ID passes to aid smooth verification. However, several domestic workers have expressed fear of arrest or losing employment, with some reportedly considering returning to their villages. 'This is where RWAs must act as a bridge between residents, workers, and the police,' Paul added. 'We must ensure that genuine citizens feel safe and that no one takes advantage of the situation.' While police maintain that the drive is necessary for national security, they have also appealed for cooperation and warned against spreading rumours or impersonating law enforcement. Authorities admit that expanding outreach and building trust is crucial to the drive's success.
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
Bihar SIR, data indicates, is not an exercise in revision but mass deletion
The conclusion of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar has already offered evidence of mass underenfranchisement of up to 94 lakh eligible adults. The publication of the draft electoral rolls (DER) on August 1 will break many records — all dubious. Compared to all other states, Bihar is set to be a complete outlier, a state with the highest proportion of 'missing voters'. This will be the largest one-time deletion of voters at any point in the history of Indian elections. This may well be the largest exercise in disenfranchisement of voters anywhere in the world in the 21st century. And this is just the beginning. Further deletions will follow in the second phase of scrutiny of the enumeration forms, especially those the BLO has marked 'non recommended'. We are assured that the same process will be followed in the rest of the country. The numbers are already alarming. As per the Election Commission of India's (ECI) press release of July 27, a total of 7.24 crore enumeration forms have been collected. Only these names will be listed in the DER, as compared to 7.89 crore names that existed on the state's voters' list on June 24, the day SIR was ordered. The ECI claims that the remaining persons are dead (22 lakh), or have permanently shifted or are untraceable (36 lakh) or were enrolled at multiple places (7 lakh) or were 'not willing to register as an elector for some reason or the other'(no numbers given). As per the SIR order, these 65 lakh names will not figure on the DER. Even if there are no further deletions, Bihar's electorate in 2025 will be smaller than the 7.36 crore electors in the 2020 assembly elections. The ECI's counterargument would be that the earlier voter list was severely inflated. All that the ECI has done is prune the list of dead, duplicate and dubious names. Preparing a smaller but more authentic list cannot be an exercise in disenfranchisement. This argument merits a reasoned response based on statistics. For this, we need to focus beyond the figure of 65 lakh and its breakdown offered by the ECI. Globally, the quality of electoral rolls is judged on three counts — accuracy, completeness and equity. Accuracy is about eliminating false or erroneous entries on the voters' list. Completeness is about not leaving anyone behind and ensuring that every person who is entitled figures on the voters' list. Equity is about a fair representation of all social groups in proportion to their share of the eligible population. At this stage, in the absence of a list of names, we are in no position to assess the accuracy and equity of the DER in Bihar. But based on the numbers, we can provisionally evaluate its completeness. For that, we need to follow a 'missing voters' approach, drawing upon Amartya Sen's famous argument about 'missing women'. He captured this phenomenon by defining it as the shortfall of the actual number of women in a country or region compared to the expected number of women as measured by the natural sex ratio. Similarly, we calculate 'missing voters' as the shortfall between the expected number of persons in the voting age population and the actual number in the voters' list. The Census-based projections (state-wise, year-wise, age-group-wise) in the Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections (2019), by the National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, are the best source for population. These figures are used by the Government of India and by the ECI itself as recently as January 2025. Table 1 presents the figures for adult population and the number of electors for the country and major states in 2024. The shortfall is indicated by the 'Electors to Adult Population Ratio' (EP Ratio, calculated by dividing the total number of electors by the total population of the voting age group. A score of 100 per cent indicates the ideal scenario of a perfect match. It shows that in 2024, the all-India EP Ratio was a healthy 99 per cent, suggesting a shortfall of just 1 per cent. At 97 per cent, Bihar was just below the national average. Its voters' list was not inflated but slightly deflated. Note that the denominator of the EP Ratio, the official projection of the adult population, is not subject to any inflation on account of inclusion of the dead or migrants, as the Census counts people wherever they happen to be on a given day. Table 2 presents the same data for the state of Bihar from 2019 onwards. It shows that Bihar has hovered around the national average, with a slight decline from 102 per cent in 2019 to 97 per cent in 2024. The special summary revision completed in January 2025 and subsequent changes till June 24 added many names to the voters' list, but since the population had also grown, the EP Ratio remained the same. The last row in Table 2 shows the drastic and adverse impact of the SIR. In July 2025, the adult population of Bihar was projected at 8.18 crore. So that is the number we should expect on the voters' list, against the actual number of 7.24 crore. The shortfall of 94 lakh would be the number of 'missing voters' in Bihar on August 1, 2025. Even if we allow for Bihar's prevailing EP Ratio, it should still have been around 7.93 crore. This suggests a dramatic and unprecedented fall from 97 per cent to just 88 per cent, a sudden drop of 9 percentage points in the EP Ratio. A comprehensive and de novo writing of the voters' list such as the SIR should have led to a net addition of about 25 lakh voters. Instead, the SIR has taken a deep dive in the opposite direction by bringing the figure down further by 69 lakh. We do not know if the SIR will lead to an improvement in the accuracy of the voters' list, but we do know that it has worsened the completeness and in all likelihood the equity of the voters' list. If the SIR leads to a Bihar-like drop in the EP Ratio in the entire country, we are looking at the potential disenfranchisement of about nine crore Indians. As of now, we do not know where these 'missing voters' are. Many of these could well be part of the 65 lakh names that are presumed by the ECI to be dead or away or untraceable. But our field experience confirms that a significant proportion of these 'missing voters' are adult persons who live in Bihar and have not been included in the previous and current voters' lists for one reason or another. Even if most of the deletions made by the ECI are genuine, the SIR failed to reach these adult residents who are eligible to vote. Oddly, for such a grand exercise of revision, the ECI has not reported a single case of addition. Clearly, the SIR was not an exercise in revision, but solely an exercise in deletion. Needless to say, this evidence flies in the face of the Supreme Court's call for 'mass inclusion, not mass exclusion'. We wait to see how the court responds to the mounting evidence of under- and disenfranchisement due to the SIR. Shastri and Yadav work with the national team of Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan. Yadav has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the SIR
Hans India
3 hours ago
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MyVoice: Views of our readers 31st July 2025
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