In this month-long campaign, the election machinery must also enrol first-time/young electors. According to the ECI, any person not yet enrolled in the electoral roll or whose name has been deleted can apply for enrolment at any time. The objective of the special drive is to identify and facilitate their inclusion.

In fact, the imperative of inclusion had always informed the creation and subsequent revision of the electoral rolls since independence. But the SIR, launched through the ECI's omnibus order in June 2025, primarily focused on 'cleaning up' the electoral rolls despite the assurance of 'leaving no voter behind'.

More than 13 crore names are said to have been deleted so far. The media has reported hundreds of cases of citizens who voted in election after election but had their eligibility first questioned and later erased for one reason or another. My name is also on a deleted list, and I have had to seek re-enrolment.

In defence of the SIR exercise, no less a person than Union Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly cited the 3D strategy - "detect, delete and deport" 'infiltrators', who allegedly became voters over time. But the credibility of this exercise hinges on the fourth D, namely 'data'. How many bona fide electors have now been labelled 'ineligible'?

In May this year, the Supreme Court of India held the SIR exercise to be constitutional and legitimate, despite well-reasoned arguments submitted to the contrary (Association for Democratic Reforms & Ors. vs Election Commission of India & Ors.). But the Court also ruled that deletion from a voter list does not automatically divest the excluded individual of claims to citizenship.

As the ECI is empowered only to determine who may or may not be enrolled as an elector, the apex court directed that the question of citizenship must be decided by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act. The Court directed the ECI to refer all cases of persons found 'ineligible' for enrolment to the competent authority for adjudicating their citizenship within four weeks.

In August, RTI applications were filed to ascertain compliance with this directive. I asked the ECI for the gender-wise number of cases referred to the competent authority for citizenship adjudication, from Bihar and other states and Union Territories where the SIR exercise stands completed.

A copy of all communication the ECI addressed to the Union government on the issue of citizenship adjudication was also sought. After sitting on the RTI for 50 days, the ECI replied that none of this information is available in its office. It refused to transfer the RTI to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of the respective states and UTs who, it said, might hold such information.

Since the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is primarily responsible for implementing the Citizenship Act, 1955, an RTI application was filed with them seeking the number of cases received from the ECI. I also asked for the names and designations of the competent authorities appointed for citizenship adjudication across the country.

Within 24 hours, the MHA transferred the RTI to the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law and Justice. Two days later, the Legislative Department shunted it to the ECI. After 40 days, the ECI transferred some queries to the MHA, including one about its own correspondence with the MHA on the subject. The data-related queries have been transferred to the CEO, Bihar.

The reactions from the ECI and the MHA to these RTI interventions expose the hollowness of the claims that have been made to justify the draconian manner in which the SIR exercise was designed and thrust on an unsuspecting citizenry.

Four months after the Court's directions, the magnitude of the 'ineligibility' problem and the identity of authorities competent to adjudicate their citizenship status remain sarkari secrets. Meanwhile, lakhs of men and women are deprived of the right to vote until their citizenship is confirmed and they are re-enrolled as electors. If this is not disenfranchisement, what is?

The ECI has created a problem of astronomical proportions by spending undisclosed sums of public money. The Commission will spend more taxpayer funds to remedy it. Will the Comptroller and Auditor General initiate an auditing exercise to fix accountability for this massive wastage of public resources?

The writer wakes up every morning thinking someone somewhere is hiding something.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)

Write to us at: theprism@deccanherald.co.in