Like many other Indian citizens, I and my wife were disenfranchized in the 2014 elections, allegedly since we moved house (we moved up a few floors in the same building). Apparently the EC is very efficient in deletion, but cannot do the same for additions. It was alleged then that one political party had ensured deletions in middle class areas that were likely to vote for another party (you can guess which the latter was).
In this cycle, we registered on form 6 online in January, but are yet to see any action (status shows as pending verification). A colleague who did the same says he was asked to bring his neighbours voter ID card as proof of his residence, and refused to do such an unreasonable act, and ended up getting rejected.
And now we have news from Hyderabad police claiming that Andhra removed people from voter lists based on a government funded survey which included a question on political affiliation. But the same news also said that natives of Andhra who reside in Hyderabad were deleted from Andhra, begging the question, so what? If they reside in Hyderabad, don't they have the right to vote there, regardless of their native place? And we have a Telangana vs Andhra war ensuing. There is also news of parties filling in form 7 to drop voters from the rolls, on a mass scale. Note that EC does not do even the basic courtesy of notifying pending deletion, and giving people a chance to contest it. In 2018 the Telangana EC even admitted to mass deletion.
So now we have a situation where a right to vote has been turned into a favour, which we have to earn by jumping through hoops, and even after all that we may not be added to the electoral rolls. The feeling of helpless only helps us understand how the poor who depend on government subsidies feel much more often. And all this is enabled by IT in a pretty strong sense. We are forced to fill forms, only to see a nameless and faceless administration reject our applications without giving any reason. (My wife and I applied online for aadhaar address change and PAN card address change a while back. Our PAN changes were rejected for flimsy reasons, and her Aadhaar address update similarly was rejected for no reason.)
Contrast this with how things worked a few decades back. Before elections (don't recall if for each election, or once in some number of years) EC staff would go door to door to create a list of voters, and your booth information would similarly be delivered at your doorstep by EC or by party agents.
Today one has to struggle to find this information online if one is luck enough
to be on the rolls.
Why can't EC do this today? All this focus on enabling Indian citizens abroad to vote forces us to ask the question, why are you not allowing Indian citizens in India to vote?
Why can't you make the electoral lists on the basis of Aadhaar, and then do a door-to-door check to verify and make required deletions and additions (e.g. of those who don't have Aadhaar cards, or whose Aadhaar addresses are not up to date)? Why can't you send provide booth information in the same step, and send other details by SMS to the aadhaar linked mobile number?
In this cycle, we registered on form 6 online in January, but are yet to see any action (status shows as pending verification). A colleague who did the same says he was asked to bring his neighbours voter ID card as proof of his residence, and refused to do such an unreasonable act, and ended up getting rejected.
And now we have news from Hyderabad police claiming that Andhra removed people from voter lists based on a government funded survey which included a question on political affiliation. But the same news also said that natives of Andhra who reside in Hyderabad were deleted from Andhra, begging the question, so what? If they reside in Hyderabad, don't they have the right to vote there, regardless of their native place? And we have a Telangana vs Andhra war ensuing. There is also news of parties filling in form 7 to drop voters from the rolls, on a mass scale. Note that EC does not do even the basic courtesy of notifying pending deletion, and giving people a chance to contest it. In 2018 the Telangana EC even admitted to mass deletion.
So now we have a situation where a right to vote has been turned into a favour, which we have to earn by jumping through hoops, and even after all that we may not be added to the electoral rolls. The feeling of helpless only helps us understand how the poor who depend on government subsidies feel much more often. And all this is enabled by IT in a pretty strong sense. We are forced to fill forms, only to see a nameless and faceless administration reject our applications without giving any reason. (My wife and I applied online for aadhaar address change and PAN card address change a while back. Our PAN changes were rejected for flimsy reasons, and her Aadhaar address update similarly was rejected for no reason.)
Contrast this with how things worked a few decades back. Before elections (don't recall if for each election, or once in some number of years) EC staff would go door to door to create a list of voters, and your booth information would similarly be delivered at your doorstep by EC or by party agents.
Today one has to struggle to find this information online if one is luck enough
to be on the rolls.
Why can't EC do this today? All this focus on enabling Indian citizens abroad to vote forces us to ask the question, why are you not allowing Indian citizens in India to vote?
Why can't you make the electoral lists on the basis of Aadhaar, and then do a door-to-door check to verify and make required deletions and additions (e.g. of those who don't have Aadhaar cards, or whose Aadhaar addresses are not up to date)? Why can't you send provide booth information in the same step, and send other details by SMS to the aadhaar linked mobile number?
Why, instead of allowing people to choose their leaders, and you allowing "leaders" to choose their voters? Time to clean up your act, Election Commission of India!
