“The House will realise that franchise is a most fundamental thing in a democracy. No person who is entitled to be brought into the electoral rolls… should be excluded merely as a result of the prejudice of a local government, or the whim of an officer. That would cut at the very root of democratic government.”
These were the historic words of B R Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949, when Article 289 of the Draft Constitution (now Article 324), which ensured that elections would be conducted under a single, impartial authority, was introduced. Ambedkar envisioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) as the guardian of democracy, immune to the poisons of caste, culture, or linguistic discrimination, and above all, beyond the reach of partisan bias.
Since then, the ECI has presided over every general election. For decades, it commanded respect as one of India’s most sacred institutions. But today, that sanctity has been brutally compromised. The BJP has systematically reduced it to an extension of its party machinery, betraying the constitutional values Ambedkar so fiercely defended.
At a time when institutions are under siege, the Indian National Congress and the INDIA bloc have taken the battle to the people. The Voter Adhikar Yatra, launched in Bihar by Rahul Gandhi, marks the first decisive step in this battle to save democracy.
Covering over 20 districts in 16 days, this yatra will inform every voter about the risk of their fundamental power in a democracy being stolen, going beyond TV screens and to every street and corner of the state. Our yatra is a resistance against the ECI’s SIR in Bihar, which it wishes to conduct as a trial run before rolling it out across the country.
The BJP is setting up a circus where the government chooses its voters. In the guise of the SIR, 65 lakh citizens have been struck off the rolls, while raising suspicisions that names favourable to the ruling party were conveniently retained or added. Instead of taking the time and effort to do a thorough, meticulous and transparent sanitisation of electoral rolls, the ECI conducted a purge behind closed doors on unrealistic timelines, with the entire machinery rushing to meet deadlines and scrambling for documents. The SIR, conducted amid floods, is fraught with errors and counter-productive for the stated objectives — all pointing to an effort to cull voters’ rights.
This is only the latest example of the BJP’s agenda of compromising India’s electoral process. Through legislation in 2023, the Modi government overruled a Supreme Court ruling to now stipulate that the CEC and ECs would be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a selection committee consisting of the PM, a Union cabinet minister, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The CJI was replaced by a hand-picked Union minister. This was the first step towards eliminating the ECI’s impartiality.
The new law also grants unprecedented immunity to the CEC and ECs, and even retired commissioners by shielding them from civil or criminal proceedings. What necessitated this? Is it because the BJP had planned voter manipulation after getting the chance to handpick CECs? By extending to Election Commissioners the same sweeping protections that apply to sitting judges, the BJP has created a shield not for independence, but for impunity.
The consequences are obvious. When Rahul Gandhi recently exposed irregularities in voter lists, the ECI’s immediate response was to deny, dismiss and cast aspersions instead of welcoming impartial scrutiny. For days, BJP leaders were seen defending the ECI, instead of the ECI itself. Meanwhile, the BJP found sensitive electoral data through “unknown” sources in an attempt to level similar allegations against Congress. But as with all things BJP, these foolish attempts collapsed under their own weight when investigations proved that claims of “fake voters” in Wayanad were fabricated.
Worse, the ECI has demanded an affidavit from Rahul Gandhi for raising these concerns, but not from BJP leaders who made reckless allegations about voter lists. When the CEC finally addressed the press, he came across as nothing more than a BJP spokesperson, skirting critical questions and responding to serious accusations with an absence of logic and juvenile, trumped-up allegations.
What the CEC didn’t answer was: Why the haste in conducting the SIR hardly three months before elections? How did Maharashtra witness an inexplicable surge of over 70 lakh voters between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections? Why did the ECI decide to delete CCTV footage of polling booths after 45 days? Why has it not acted on the massive revelations made by Rahul Gandhi?
Was it not its guilt that forced the ECI to vehemently oppose the Supreme Court’s directions to publish details of the deleted voters from the Bihar SIR in a searchable format and to allow Aadhaar as proof of voter identity?
Clean voter lists are the first step towards building an honest constitutional democracy. When their legitimacy is under suspicion, the people’s trust erodes. Today, two forces in India refuse to recognise the ECI’s duty of impartiality: The BJP, and the Commission itself. Has the ECI taken any decision that could suggest it is acting on its own accord, treating the BJP in the same manner as other opposition parties? Surely, if so, the BJP would have tried to raise public awareness. Its selective targeting of the Opposition shows its true agenda – to sideline those who stand between its authoritarian tendencies and the Constitution’s fiercely democratic character.
The fight to protect the Constitution is not symbolic. It is a living struggle to defend democracy itself. The INDIA bloc is determined never to allow this destruction. The battle to reclaim the ECI’s sanctity, restore fairness in our elections, and defend the very idea of India’s democracy is afoot — and will continue until all threats are decisively dealt with.
The writer is general secretary (organisation), All India Congress Committee
