With the all-important, absolutely vital, now-or-never Vande Mataram debate out of the way, Parliament has brought “electoral reform” onto the agenda after a year-long hiatus. That’s reason to worry. Whenever the Narendra Modi government wants to destroy an institution, it begins talking about “reform.”
The results are predictable. Somehow, each electoral “reform” has ended up advantaging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on an already tilted playing field. Consider how large-scale corruption was concealed through opaque Electoral Bonds, and how constituencies in Assam and Jammu & Kashmir were gerrymandered to favour the BJP under “delimitation.” Likewise, a rushed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar coincided with a pro-incumbent sweep for a faltering chief minister who had been in office for two decades.
And then there is the 129th Constitutional Amendment Bill, also known as “One Nation, One Election,” which seeks simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. After facing a barrage of criticism for being anti-federal, unconstitutional, and premised on dodgy economic assumptions, the bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee. Yet it remains very much on the government’s agenda, a thinly disguised attempt to reshape national politics in favour of the ruling party.
Meanwhile, what is the Election Commission of India’s reaction to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s revelations of crores of fake voters in India’s electoral rolls? Stonewalling, passive aggression, filmy dialogues. The Commission has acted only to obstruct, whether by refusing to share machine-readable rolls or explain the shady deletion of CCTV footage from polling booths. Or by the suspicious removal of the Chief Justice of India from the panel to choose election commissioners. Even in Bihar, after the ECI’s “purification,” more than five lakh duplicate voters remained on the rolls, raising questions about the Commission’s intentions.
“Reform to deform” is a better description of the Modi government’s approach to election procedures. This is not hyperbole. Consider the record.
Also read: ECI reacts to vote chori with passive aggression and no action. Media is doing the same
Special Intensive Revision
Ordinarily, there would be no reason to oppose a carefully planned and implemented SIR to ensure that electoral rolls are accurate. But we all know how the SIR was foisted on Bihar a few months before the state election—with no consultation, forewarning, or preparation whatsoever. It generated chaos and panic among voters until the Supreme Court stepped in to restore a semblance of due process. Now it is being extended to other states with similar results, including reports of suicides by overworked booth-level officers.
Actions such as these have led to the ECI being perceived as utterly untrustworthy among the Opposition and an increasing proportion of voters. What, other than pure partisanship and devotion to the ruling party, can explain this behaviour?
BJP’s fundraising methods
How can one forget the electoral bonds scheme launched in 2018, ostensibly “to cleanse the system of political funding in the country”? Six years and several legal challenges later, the Supreme Court of India declared it unconstitutional, not least because of the “possibility that financial contribution to a political party would lead to quid pro quo arrangements because of the close nexus between money and politics.” That turned out to be prophetic.
The extent of electoral corruption became glaringly clear after the Supreme Court ordered donor data released. For example, Megha Engineering contributed Rs 140 crore to the BJP in April 2023—then won the Rs 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel project shortly after. Apart from many such apparent quid pro quo arrangements, other donations came from apparent shell companies like Qwik Supply Chain, which gave away Rs 360 crore in the financial year 2021-22. Its net profit the same year was only Rs 21.72 crore.
But the Supreme Court failed to anticipate one more mode of electoral fundraising: “Hafta vasooli”. At least 14 of the top 30 donors had faced raids by investigative agencies. The BJP received Rs 2,471 crore from 41 companies being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, or Income Tax Department. We already knew how these agencies had become vehicles for the expansion of the BJP, punishment of the Opposition, and the enrichment of Modi’s cronies. Now add BJP fundraising to the list.
Any other government would have fallen if caught red-handed this way. But not Modi’s electoral autocracy.
These kinds of apparent quid pro quo transactions didn’t end with the outlawing of electoral bonds. On 29 February 2024, the Modi Cabinet approved subsidies for three upcoming semiconductor units. One, to be built by the Murugappa Group, was to receive a Rs 3,501 crore subsidy, and two by the Tata Group would receive Rs 44,203 crore. On 11 and 22 March, the Murugappa Group’s electoral trust donated Rs 125 crore to the BJP. The Tata Group’s electoral trust on 2 April gave Rs 758 crore—the largest single political donation ever. Amazing coincidences, are they not?
Also read: Banning electoral bonds won’t cure corporate capture of politics. Bigger reforms are needed
Gerrymandered constituencies
Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies are supposed to be periodically redrawn in line with population growth. In both Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, delimitation ended up miraculously favouring the BJP.
In Assam, the redesigned Assembly seats appeared to be engineered to reduce Muslim representation, and we know the BJP gets negligible Muslim votes. As an example, Barpeta Assembly was redrawn to include the Hindu-dominated area of Sarthebari, which was previously part of a different constituency. This would be unremarkable but for the cartographic contortions required for it to happen—a very narrow corridor connecting Barpeta with Sarthebari through adjacent constituencies. The new map is reminiscent of classic gerrymandered districts in the US, once designed to limit African American representation.
Likewise, in Jammu and Kashmir, delimitation increased Jammu’s Assembly seats from 37 to 43 and Kashmir’s from 46 to 47. Despite Kashmir’s population being about 29 per cent higher, it now holds only 9 per cent more seats. Article 170 of the Constitution requires that seats be allocated in proportion to population, but this ceased to apply once J&K became a Union Territory. This change sought to create a pathway for the BJP, which has never won a seat in Kashmir, to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir with the support of smaller parties in the Valley. Even though the National Conference swept Kashmir in 2024, these openly BJP-favouring changes happened in the name of “reform.”
And electoral “reform” for the Modi government means cementing its political hold.
But the “vote chori” revelations cannot be ignored much longer. Looking away is not an option for the ECI; it’s an institution responsible for Indian democracy. It must bring back trust in the system by sharing machine-readable voter rolls, protecting and providing structured access to CCTV footage, and allowing independent experts to evaluate the security of electronic voting machines. It is necessary to restore balance by bringing the CJI back into the committee—alongside the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition—to select election commissioners in a fair process. Everything else is a cover-up.
Amitabh Dubey is a Congress member. He tweets @dubeyamitabh. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)