Once a constitutional safeguard, the ECI now risks enabling the erosion of India’s democratic norms through partisanship and opacity. The Election Commission of India (ECI) was set up on January 25, 1950, one day before the country became a Republic. So, historically, the ECI predates the Republic of India, which is an important factoid that […]
“Are we to believe that 22–25 lakh people died in just six months, and another 37 lakh left?” The Election Commission of India’s month-long charade of ‘fixing’ the voter rolls of Bihar — an exercise now better known as the ‘Special Intensive Revision’ — has reached its first big milestone. The all-new draft voter rolls […]
24 जून के नोटिफिकेशन में लिखा है कि जो लोग 1 जनवरी, 2003 से पहले मतदाता सूची में थे, उन्हें भारत का नागरिक माना जाएगा। यानी इसके बाद के लोग नागरिक नहीं माने जाएंगे! नागरिक ना मानना बहुत बड़ी बात है। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने 10 जुलाई की सुनवाई में कहा भी था कि आप नागरिकता […]
Expecting uneducated migrants to fill and upload online forms to enroll as voters is a flight of fancy. The Election Commission still has time to take corrective steps A correct and up-to-date electoral roll is sine qua non for a free and fair election in a democracy. However, given the size, diversity, and geographical dispersion of population […]
According to a full-page advertisement issued by the Bihar CEO on July 5, voters in Bihar could submit their Enumeration Forms (EFs) by July 25. The article was originally published in The Tribune.
Election Commission doesn’t share adequate voting-related information with people. That prevents a meaningful analysis of the electoral process. On June 8, this newspaper carried a report (‘Rahul’s attack on EC doesn’t match poll data, officials say bid to “defame”’) contradicting an op-ed on its Ideas Page (‘Match-fixing Maharashtra’, IE, June 7). The report was accompanied […]
The Narendra Modi government must offer more details about the proposed caste census and share updates about anti-terror operations — this will put to rest misleading and malicious rumours April 30, 2025, will remain etched in India’s memory as a special day. Since morning, there was palpable excitement about a really big announcement from the […]
Given that the chief election commissioner often mentions the guiding principle of the ECI to be ‘disclosure’, it should not be unreasonable to expect the rationale behind this decision to be made public. On January 7, in a press conference lasting over an hour, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that the polling for […]
In our excessive focus on EVMs we often fail to look at the other components that demand our attention and reform to improve India’s electoral process. There has been a lot of debate in India about manipulation of elections, their results, and, in particular, about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Ever since over a million EVMs […]
Poll rule tweak is in keeping with stonewalling by the ECI over the past few years ADDRESSING a press conference on March 13 this year, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar asserted: “Hamare teen hee pillar hain — disclosure, disclosure, disclosure… Disclose everything to the public, to the voter, the voter have (sic) right to […]