Bihar, India’s poorest state measured by per capita income, is now in the thick of a controversial drive to verify voters’ identities. This effort has generated outrage and alarm across the country. Over a third of the state’s citizens live in economic distress below the poverty line. Additionally, this drastic initiative would hit our most vulnerable communities the hardest. Bihar is the third-most populous state in India. Yet it remains an essential political counterweight and battleground, and it is scheduled to hold its legislative elections later this year, likely in October or November.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) just released an order. Of roughly 79.6 million registered voters in Bihar, 43 million have yet to check their voting credentials. This step comes after a long period with little action, as the last comprehensive update of electoral rolls occurred in 2003. The ECI continues to argue that there is a legitimate need for this verification process. According to critics, all this lack of transparency and consultation eviscerates any hopes of greater fairness and accessibility.
Demographics and Political Importance
It is hard to ignore Bihar’s vast diversity. Muslims are the second largest religious group in the country, making up 17 percent of the total population, or roughly 17.6 million people. Other independent estimates indicate that this number may be as high as 47 million. These communities have the powerful legacy of having consistently powered opposition parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress to victory. Their engagement in these elections is important too, particularly for a state that frequently is a key general election battleground.
The state’s socio-economic conditions complicate matters further. With annual monsoon rains from June to October resulting in extreme inundation, two-thirds of Bihar is considered flood-prone. Floods account for 30-40 percent of the overall flood damages in India annually. This devastation greatly exacerbates the already brutal living conditions that many of the residents live in.
A recent survey by the Bihar government revealed alarming statistics regarding education levels, showing that only 14.71 percent of the population has cleared grade 10 in school. This low level of educational attainment can make it difficult for them to follow complex bureaucratic processes like the voter verification drive.
The Voter Verification Controversy
The ECI’s decision to implement this voter verification process has sparked confusion and panic among residents, particularly in rural areas where poverty is rampant. Thousands of people are scrambling to gather the paper trail necessary to establish their citizenship. This task is further compounded for those who live in flood-vulnerable regions. Activists and specialists claim these communities usually do not have consistently circulated documentation as a result of repeated floods that destroyed important papers.
“You cannot punish people if the state lacks capacity to distribute these documents.” – Pushpendra
Critics of the narrow verification drive have raised legitimate concerns about the motives driving this effort. Many close observers wonder about the ECI’s rationale for initiating this process. They claim that the ECI has failed to provide sufficient information to support its assertion that undocumented immigrants show up on voter registration lists.
“The ECI has not been able to provide any reason for why it thought this revision was needed. They have no data to demonstrate its claims,” – Apoorvanand
Unequal treatment worries are rising like never before. Many of us feel that the verification drive has been hijacked and has become a politically divisive issue rather than a neutral bureaucratic procedure.
“Which is why this has no longer remained a bureaucratic, neutral exercise of a constitutional body. Its politics is very suspicious,” – Apoorvanand
There are growing concerns over what this push means. A large part of the country’s population could be disenfranchised in the process.
“Ultimately, the ECI is asking citizens to prove their citizenship by furnishing documents,” – Chhokar
Historical Context and Implications
For 70 years, the fundamental eligibility requirements for voting in India never changed. Voters only had to be able to tell their date of birth to vote in elections. Never before have we seen such an abrupt change to this otherwise entrenched practice.
“At no point in the country’s 70 years has the voting eligibility criterion changed – voters were always supposed to provide their date of birth,” – Chhokar
The abrupt insistence for more documentation raises alarm bells about the legitimacy of previous elections. It challenges the legitimacy of all the elected representatives from Bihar in the past two decades to have been truly legitimately elected.
“Is the ECI saying that there has been a huge scam in Bihar’s voter list since 2003? Is it saying that everyone who got elected from Bihar in these 22 years is not valid?” – Chhokar
The lack of any prior consultation, or engagement, makes the ECI’s credibility highly questionable and its policy prescriptions profoundly troubling. It goes against the agency’s professed commitment to defending and protecting fair electoral practices.
“That such a big decision was taken and brought out in such a secretive way, without consultation, raises questions around the ECI’s partiality,” – Pushpendra
