When Democracy Gets ‘Unsubscribed’: The Politics of Voter Deletions in India
Dr Akshay Kulkarni
New Delhi [India], February 07: In a country where we can launch satellites to Mars but still misplace voters next door, the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) arrives as the latest technological marvel in the art of “democratic housekeeping.” Officially, it is a benign exercise to “purify” electoral rolls. Unofficially, it is a nationwide stress test of how many citizens can be declared dead, migrated or mysteriously “logically discrepant” while still breathing, paying GST, and watching prime minister’s address to the nation.
Bihar got the trailer first. Nearly four lakh names vanished from the draft rolls, like bad loans from a PSU bank balance sheet. The justification was familiar: flood-prone state, high migration, complex socio-economic re...










