EDITORIAL 01
Ensuring compliance: On the Indian pharmaceutical sector
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EDITORIAL 02
Calling out the criticism of the Indian judiciary
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EDITORIAL 03
Let’s audit Bihar SIR. It makes for sad reading
What is the Issue?
The final electoral rolls for Bihar have been published, and the election schedule is now set.
A provisional audit of the Systematic Revision of Rolls (SIR) exercise is necessary to assess the quality of the new voters’ list using three globally accepted parameters of voter registration: completeness, equity, and accuracy.
The results raise concerns about the integrity of the process.
Point No. 1. Completeness: The Missing Voters
- Definition: Completeness is measured by the proportion of eligible adults who appear on the voters’ list.
- The final voters’ list in Bihar indicates 90% of adults have been included, which is an improvement over the draft roll’s 88%.
- Big Picture:
- Despite this improvement, Bihar’s electoral population should have had 22 crore voters, based on estimates by the Government of India’s Technical Group on Population Projections.
- The actual figure is 42 crore, meaning about 80 lakh potential voters are still missing from the list.
- Misleading Sense of Relief:
- The final numbers are better than initially feared — 65 lakh exclusions in the draft rolls, compared to concerns of up to 2 crore deletions.
- However, the reason for this relative improvement was Supreme Court oversight, not the ECI’s actions.
- The court’s intervention led to “damage control” measures, including bypassing regular procedures:
- Forgery of enumeration forms by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), reportedly encouraged by the ECI.
- Vanshavali (family trees) were used to include voters who could not provide necessary documents.
- The Aadhaar issue was mitigated by the Supreme Court’s ruling, limiting the risk of disenfranchisement.
Point No. 2. Equity: Representation of Social Groups
- Definition: Equity refers to the proportional representation of all social groups in the voter list.
- Worsening Representation of Women:
- The SIR exercise resulted in a 16 lakh increase in the number of missing female voters.
- The gap between the share of women in the population and their representation on the voter list has worsened, reversing a positive trend from 2012 to 2025.
- Exclusion of Muslims: Although official data on Muslim representation is unavailable, name recognition software revealed alarming patterns:
- Muslims accounted for 24.7% of the 65 lakh exclusions from the draft rolls.
- 33% of the deletions from the final list were Muslims, despite their population share of only 16.9%.
- This results in nearly 6 lakh “excess exclusions” of Muslims, raising concerns about discriminatory practices in the voter registration process.
Point No. 3. Accuracy: Quality of the Electoral Rolls
- Definition: Accuracy measures the correctness of the information on the voter list.
- The final voters’ list for Bihar contains numerous errors, suggesting that the SIR exercise did not effectively “purify” the rolls as claimed:
- Over 24,000 gibberish names.
- 2 lakh duplicate entries.
- More than 6,000 invalid gender entries.
- Over 51,000 invalid relations (not matching standard family relations like mother, father, husband, etc.).
- 2 lakh invalid house numbers.
- These errors undermine the credibility of the claim that the SIR exercise successfully “cleansed” the electoral rolls.
- Concentration of Voters in Households: There are now 24 lakh households in Bihar with 10 or more electors—a potential sign of manipulation or fraudulent registration.
Point No. 4. Claims of Removing Foreigners: The Inconsistency
- BJP’s Allegations: BJP leaders, supported by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), claimed that the SIR exercise aimed at removing foreigners (alleged Bangladeshis and Rohingyas) from the rolls.
- However, the data provided by the ECI failed to support these claims:
- The number of foreigners detected during house-to-house verification was not disclosed.
- Out of 2.4 lakh objections, only 1,087 were related to foreigners, and even fewer were substantiated.
- Only 390 objections were accepted, with only 87 Muslims among those deleted.
- Lack of transparency in reporting these figures raises questions about the actual intent and effectiveness of this claim.
Point No. 5. Transparency and Fairness
- Transparency Issues:
- The ECI’s refusal to provide documents such as the Intensive Revision Order of 2003 and its withholding of final roll data contradicts the body’s own standards.
- The Supreme Court had to order the release of names of 65 lakh exclusions from the draft rolls.
- The ECI’s secrecy and lack of consultation during the process, along with its combative stance towards Opposition leaders, compromised the perceived neutrality of the exercise.
- Fairness Concerns: The SIR exercise has been criticized for its haste, lack of consultation, and failure to uphold due process. The ECI’s biased approach to opposition feedback further erodes the credibility of the exercise.
Way Forward
- This provisional audit of the SIR exercise in Bihar highlights serious shortcomings:
- Incompleteness: A large number of eligible voters, especially women and Muslims, remain missing from the rolls.
- Equity: Certain groups, especially women and Muslims, have been disproportionately excluded, undermining the principle of fairness in representation.
- Accuracy: The exercise did not achieve the expected “purification” of the electoral rolls and introduced numerous errors.
- Transparency and Fairness: The lack of openness and fairness in the process raises serious doubts about the integrity of the SIR exercise.
- If these issues are not addressed, the lessons from Bihar’s experience with the SIR could lead to mass disenfranchisement if the exercise is implemented in other states. It could also erode public trust in elections, threatening the foundation of India’s electoral democracy.
EDITORIAL 04
Deaths in MP due to spurious cough syrups point to grave regulatory deficits
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