How Best to Resolve the Issue of Missing Names in Voter Lists in India

Whatever the reasons, there is a certain entity called the ‘estimate of the percentage of voting-age people missing from voting lists in a normal election in India’. The percentage missing in SIR should be compared to this percentage to find out the extent of extra exclusion this time. There is clearly a difference between a headline which proclaims ‘12% voters excluded for the first time in India’ and one which states, more truthfully in my humble opinion, that voters excluded appear to be higher than what has been normally seen in elections in India.

Secondly, SIR is still an ongoing process, so those who have been excluded have a chance, using laid-down procedures, to get their names included. I agree with critics that these processes are often too difficult, particularly for poorer or less literate people, and therefore need significant improvement—something to which opposition parties and social movements can contribute better in more constructive, less confrontational ways.

Of course, I do not disagree with the issue raised by critics that in certain cases, some individuals and groups may have been deliberately targeted for exclusion. The challenge ahead is precisely to remove such injustices and ensure the inclusion of those who were left out in the first phase due to more routine and logistical reasons, such as being away from home or overworked staff being unable to reach them.

So, the way ahead, in the humble opinion of this writer, is for the courts, election bodies, the government, opposition parties, social movements, community organizations, and people to work together cooperatively to correct voter lists and make them truly inclusive. The official side must agree that mistakes have been made; the opposition side must agree that they have been too confrontational. Ultimately, democracy works best when all sides can cooperate for improvements in a true democratic spirit. There should not be any undue denial, there should not be any undue exaggeration. Let’s get together to resolve the issue without allowing this to result in any violence or harm to our country. This is all the more important in the present complex international situation, which is very difficult and calls for increasing national unity in India and, indeed, in all countries of the Global South.

Before concluding, let me add with due humility that the issue of election irregularities is not at all new to me. In my younger days, as an independent reporter, I had gone to cover elections in some villages of Bihar where there was almost complete booth capturing, and probably not a single voter could vote fairly in certain villages. and probably not a single voter could vote in a fair way in certain villages. I could get these reports published only with the greatest difficulty. However, I took care to mention that this was not happening everywhere and, on the whole, regular elections and the democracy based on them were an achievement for India. Nothing is to be gained from exaggeration, just as nothing is to be gained from hiding actual irregularities.