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Journalism of Courage
When Suraj Kumar first learnt of the initial documentation requirement for the Special Intensive Revision exercise, his first reaction was panic. Suraj had taken leave of absence from the Surat thread factory where he works and returned to the state in July to fill up the enumeration form — only to be told that Aadhaar, the only document he had, would not do.
Today, Suraj, a resident of Koriyawagarh village in Patna’s Masaurhi Assembly segment, a relieved man, having found his name in the electoral rolls.
“I applied with an Aadhar card but was told to submit any other document,” Suraj, a 21-year-old OBC voter, recalls of the initial panic and chaos. “I applied for a residential certificate and decided to stay in the village till the Assembly polls. I was told last month by my Booth Level Officer that my Aadhar card was being accepted after the Supreme Court order.”
He isn’t the only one. Ahead of the November Assembly elections and after a three-month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state, the Election Commission of India (EC) Tuesday published its final electoral roll for Bihar containing the names of 7.42 crore electors.
The list includes a good number of people of the 3.66 lakh people who, like Suraj, had their names deleted from the first draft roll because of the lack of the 11 initially mandated documents but are now on the final one following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed for Aadhaar to be submitted as a valid “12th document”.
The Indian Express tracked down six such people from various social-economic groups – from an EBC family in Samastipur and an upper caste farmer from Banka to a Dalit family in Purnia and a Muslim daily wager in Ariaria.
Until mid-August, Radhiya Giri and her husband Subodh Giri, a young Extremely Backward Class couple from Sarairanjan Assembly segment in Samastipur, had failed to submit any of the EC-mandated documents despite several reminders from their BLO.
While Radhiya found her mother’s name on the 2003 roll, which meant that according to the EC mandate, she didn’t need to submit any additional documents, Subodh, who does odd jobs for a living, still needed his documents, and applied for a residential certificate.
“But before the certificate could be issued, my BLO informed me that my Aadhar card copy would do. Later, I learnt that the Supreme Court had allowed Aadhar cards. It’s such a relief to remain a voter,” Subodh Giri says.
When The Indian Express met her last month, 65-year-old Budhiya Devi was fuming at the entire exercises. Like several others like her, Budhiya, a Dalit resident of ward number 11 in Purnia’s Musahar Tola Purnia, only had an Aadhaar and ration card as proof, and was furious at having been made to run around to secure other documents.
“Why is this (SIR) being done?” she had said angrily. “I remember, when we were earlier part of another Assembly constituency and then when we became part of Dhamdaha, it was the government that gave us voter ID cards. We didn’t have to run around for papers. Now, we have to spend money at cyber cafes and pay bribes as well. If the government and politicians do not want us to stay voters, we are okay with it.”
Now that her name is on the list, she’s ecstatic. “About 200 of 900 voters in this booth had submitted only their Aadhar card copies. All have made it to the voter list,” a fellow village resident, Mukesh Kumar, says.
Like others, AK Singh from Banka’s Amarpur Assembly segment panicked when he heard the requirements.
“Our BLO had asked for either an Aadhar or ration card,” says the 31-year-old farmer. “About 80 percent of voters did the same. I had only an Aadhar card. Upper caste people would generally get residential certificates only when they need it after getting government jobs…. For a while, I panicked that the Aadhar card might not work but when the Supreme Court order followed, we were relaxed.”
In Hardar village under Araria’s Jokihat Assembly segment, Mohammed Shamin, a daily wager, is glad that it’s over, but believes that SIR was an unnecessary exercise “that created several doubts in our minds about the government’s intentions”.
“But all’s well that ends well,” Shamim says.
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