New Delhi: A delegation of 11 Opposition parties including the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the CPI(ML) Wednesday met the Election Commission of India (ECI) and said its ongoing “special intensive” voter verification drive in poll-bound Bihar was the “worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution of India”.
The parties, which are contesting the Bihar assembly elections as allies, said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which began on Sunday, was a “citizenship test” in the garb of verifying whether a person is eligible to vote in the election due later this year. Their meeting with the ECI lasted nearly three hours.
“Today, every vote counts. Even if you wrongfully delete or wrongfully add a single voter, it is creating a non-level playing field that affects elections and democracy which are part of the basic structure. Even a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional if it violates the basic structure,” Congress Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters after the meeting.
Under the special revision, which was last carried out in Bihar in 2003, those born between 1 July 1987 and 2 December 2004, will have to provide documents establishing the date of birth and/or place of birth of father or mother.
Those born after 2 December 2004, will have to establish the same for both parents. It will not be required for those born before 1 July 1987. The EC cited factors such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, inclusion of names of foreign illegal immigrants as the reason behind its move.
Property papers and land records are among 11 documents that will be accepted as proof in the case of non-availability of birth certificates. Singhvi said a vast majority of the people of Bihar, particularly those who have migrated to various states for livelihood, cannot be expected to run from pillar to post to furnish such documents.
“It is easy to say that volunteers will be there to help, but if a person does not get these certificates within the time limit, he loses his place on the electoral roll. The law is that when the electoral process starts, challenges are not heard by courts. So this is a very serious thing. The election commission, though it heard us, seems to be completely disinclined to accept our submissions,” Singhvi said.
RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said that the “conspiracy” to “disenfranchise crores of voters” will be fought tooth and nail. Jha claimed that the EC had no response to the questions of the Opposition on the rationale of the exercise, the eligibility criteria, and whether it has the wherewithal to carry it out.
“What can we say when the objective of an exercise is exclusion rather than inclusion? If your intent is to disenfranchise crores of people, then the story will not end here. There will be ripples on the streets if the right to vote, the most essential of our rights, is tampered with,” Jha said.
CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya alleged that under the verification drive, the ECI would not consider migrants as people who ordinarily belong to Bihar. “And that is why their name should not be on the voter list is what the ECI nearly said,” Bhattacharya said.
His concern appears to stem from Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s recent remarks that eligible citizens should register themselves as voters only in constituencies of which they are ordinary residents and not the place where they own a house.
Addressing a group of booth-level officers in Delhi on 1 July, Kumar said, “As per the Representation of the People Act, you are entitled to vote only in the assembly constituency where you are an ordinary resident. For example, if you ordinarily reside in Delhi but own a house in Patna, your vote should be registered in Delhi, not in Patna.”
Bhattacharya said the EC’s verification drive in Bihar was a “citizenship test in the name of Special Intensive Revision. This is vote-bandi.” The Trinamool Congress had previously alleged that the drive was a backdoor attempt to create a National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Singhvi said the Opposition was not against a verification drive. “It can be done with great caution, great care, great comprehensiveness and great time invested after this election. Why choose this on the very cusp of the election?” he asked.
EC sources claimed that “each concern which was raised by any member of the political party was fully addressed by the commission”, adding that the drive was being carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Article 326 and The Representation of People Act, 1950.
Before the meeting, the parties also objected to the commission’s decision to allow two representatives from each party to participate in the meeting. As a result, many leaders including senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera had to wait, Singhvi said.
EC sources said that “some of the participants were given an appointment and others were allowed to join in without any prior appointment, as the commission decided to meet two representatives from every party so as to listen to all views.”
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Congress, TMC oppose EC’s ‘special intensive revision’ of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar