Sir, What Was That?

Voters are still stumped by EC’s rules, and are still struggling to be included

One might have expected, after the tortuous labyrinthine process in 10 states/UTs, and massive exclusions, that at least the voter enrolment form would no longer trigger anxiety. That enrolment would have been standardised in the 19 remaining states and UTs, where EC’s special intensive revision (SIR) is under way. Alas, confusion reigns, because the process is inconsistent. If in Bihar, EC had said a pre-filled enumeration will be made available to electors, which will have to be simply ‘re-submitted’, a year on, in SIR’s third avatar, BLOs in Delhi, for one, are asking existing long-term voters to fill up Form 6, that enrols new voters, and in the ‘house-to-house’ – that really means a crazy scrum at RWA offices – all queries will be fixed. Everyone’s a new voter. While in earlier avatars, reportedly, only those who were never enrolled as voters would need to provide parents’ documents, in recent rounds, you need to provide parents’ details, or previous EPIC numbers, regardless.

Imagine what this means for an orphan, a 75-year-old, or an 18-yr-old whose parents have never wanted to be on the voter roll. It is harrowing. From where does an orphan produce parental records? What will EC do with details of an 80-year-old’s parents, born pre-Partition? Who is to assure the 18-year-old migrant that she will not be viewed with suspicion, simply because her parents were never on the voter rolls? Is she an alien? Being on the electoral roll is not mandatory.

Making it an exclusionary process – and placing the onus of proving eligibility on the individual – and making SIR documentation a nightmare, is increasing citizens’ pain. Down the rabbit hole of documentation – one where GOI claims that passport is a mere travel document, ration cards are off-limits, Aadhaar is iffy, birth certificates a recent phenom, one where the bewildered elector holds out their trove of documents, only to be stumped by a query on the provenance of documents. Can’t say? “Off with his name”, is what’s happening in very many cases. It’s a peculiar, and unfortunate, situation where universal adult franchise is getting marked by EC’s stamp of exclusion.