The first round in the battle over the ongoing revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls has gone to the subalterns. They were quick to grasp the import of the Election Commission of India’s declaration that all those not listed in the 2003 electoral rolls must submit documents proving their citizenship to register as voters. They read in the declaration an example of elite manipulation to deprive them of their right to vote — and stoke doubts about their citizenship. The “wretched of the earth” displayed their anger, even suggesting they could take to the streets, prompting the ECI to stage a climbdown.
This is the conclusion to be drawn from the advertisement the ECI issued yesterday, July 6, informing the people of Bihar that they need not submit citizenship documents, in case they didn’t have them, for enrolling as voters. Yet it’s a battle only half-won, for all of them must submit an Enumeration Form, introduced for the first time, to even qualify as voters. Worse, the ECI’s advertisement doesn’t unequivocally state that the citizenship test has been rescinded.
Indeed, the subalterns may still have to fight many more rounds before they can be certain of having nixed the ECI’s game plan of creating a playing field favouring the elite. Nothing less than the withdrawal of the citizenship test would satisfy the subalterns.
This is because the ECI has turned on its head the well-established norm as to who can be a voter. Until now, it was presumed all voters were Indian. Around 10 days ago, the ECI decreed that people must first pass a citizenship test before they can become voters. Citizenship, in turn, was made dependent upon a person possessing one of the 11 documents the ECI listed.
Since the requirements for becoming a citizen were changed over time, three different categories of people were supposed to submit to the ECI three different types of documents, with the Enumeration Form, to prove their citizenship. Those born before July 1, 1987, were to furnish evidence of when and where they were born. In addition to this document, those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, were to provide a document certifying the place and date of birth of either of their parents. They were to do the same for both their parents in case they were born after December 2, 2004.
The ECI’s notification on the revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls states that all those who submit the Enumeration Form will be featured in the draft electoral rolls, to be published and made publicly accessible. Thereafter, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is to scrutinise the draft rolls, invite objections from the public, and hold inquiries and inform those s/he considers ineligible to vote because of their suspect citizenship. Those affected can go in appeal to the District Magistrate (DM), and then to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
Unless the citizenship test is annulled, the draft electoral rolls will feature two sets of people — those who submitted one of the ECI’s 11 documents and those who didn’t. This distinction could still become the basis for the ERO to raise or uphold objections to the eligibility of persons to vote. For sure, the poor will unlikely expend money to travel long distances to file appeals and have their names reinstated in electoral rolls.
The ECI’s process of revising the electoral rolls is, in fact, designed against the poor and the uneducated, evident from the nature of the 11 documents the ECI wants. People would have consciously obtained one of the ECI’s documents for a specific purpose — to secure a passport, for instance. Or they would have acquired the documents on account of being privileged, such as identity cards and pension certificates issued to their parents as public servants. Or they have birth certificates because their educated parents had the wisdom to register them at birth. Or they secured caste certificates as the education they could afford made them eligible to compete for reserved jobs and seats in educational institutes.
It`s improbable that a school dropout, a landless person, a daily-wager or even someone employed in the informal sector would have ever felt the need for the documents the ECI seeks. In a backwards state like Bihar, their numbers would run into crores, all of them threatened with disenfranchisement because of the ECI process.
This danger will continue to loom until the citizenship test is withdrawn and the ECI returns to the earlier norm of presuming every voter is a citizen. It’s only in the latter case the ERO will have no reason, apart from inaccurate or missing birth and residential proofs, to strike out a person from the electoral rolls.
It`s easy to guess who will possess at least one of the ECI’s 11 documents — they will be part of the educated middle class, which the upper castes dominate. The Hindu upper castes constitute a little over 11 per cent of the state’s population. They are the steadfast supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as are also a segment of the middle class from the lower castes. The disenfranchising of the subalterns will give the middle class an electoral weightage disproportionate to its numbers. Indeed, the ECI is engaged in a counter-revolution against the democratic upsurge from below.
The writer is a senior journalist and author of Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste.
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