West Bengal SIR: A mockery of Democracy
Yes. Some people become fathers at the age of 15. Then, by the age of 40, some become grandfathers. Moreover, the same person has six or more children. These are not number gimmick. In fact, this is the essence of the West Bengal SIR process. The figures have come from the Election Commission of India.
However, these are not rare or exceptional cases. On the contrary, there are many such people in every category. As a result, it feels as if we have gone back to the early 1900s. Here, no Ram Mohan brought about a social renaissance in Bengal. Moreover, there was no Vidyasagar to fight against social evils like sati. Child marriage still continues. Consequently, we are moving only backward. In Contrast, our population growth rate is just 1.4 percent. Hence, it adequately proves that we are becoming educated and progressive.
Late reaction of Election Commission in West Bengal SIR
However, this calculation is based on the lists submitted by the BLOs. In other words, it reflects what they have uploaded. As a result, 1.68 crore voters will undergo re-verification before the draft voter list. Therefore, BLOs must reach all those houses within these three days. Meanwhile, the Election Commission is issuing new guidelines one after another. Consequently, the BLOs are under extreme pressure and distress. The West Bengal SIR process is in a complete haywire stage.
Naturally, a question arises: did the Election Commission wake up only after seeing the percentage of deleted names? After remaining silent for so long, it has now started sending observers and issuing guidelines one after another. In fact, when not a single name was deleted in 2,208 polling stations, the Election Commission realized that something was seriously wrong. However, it seems to have failed to grasp the full scale of the problem. More importantly, it probably did not anticipate the kind of pressure the BLOs were under.
Variation in Exclusion or such strange anomalies
At present, political practitioners will focus on how many voters were excluded from which polling station. Next, blame games will begin over why nearly 45,000 names were deleted in Mamata Banerjee’s constituency but only 10,000 in that of Suvendu Adhikari. Meanwhile, people will accuse the Election Commission of acting as an agent of the BJP. However, to me, these irregularities are far more important. Frankly, it is hard to believe that the BLOs did not go door to door. After all, these issues are visible to the naked eye. For example, can it really be possible that no one noticed a father and son with only a 15-year age gap?
No one will talk about how democracy has been mocked in such a planned and systematic manner. On one hand, the Trinamool Congress has been continuously hurling abuses at the Election Commission. On the other hand, they been efficiently managing booth-level operations to its advantage. BJP and other oppositions failed to comprehend the situation.
BJP leaders kept presenting figures one after another. Suvendu said one crore, while Sukanta claimed one and a half crore. It felt as if an auction was underway. Apparently, they assumed that the SIR alone would ensure their victory. However, they failed to consider how weak their booth-level organization really was. In fact, they could deploy agents in only about 50 percent of the areas. As a result, the Trinamool Congress scored freely on an open field.
BLOs without security in West Bengal SIR
The Election Commission sent BLOs to people’s homes for West Bengal SIR process. However, those BLOs are also human beings and government employees. So, what security arrangements did the Election Commission make for them? Meanwhile, because the opposition failed to deploy agents, the Trinamool Congress played the field without resistance. The police administration stood alongside it. Perhaps the Election Commission used AI tools at this situation to uncover these irregularities.
The Consequences
However, the real question remains: why did it wake up so late in West Bengal SIR? Only when observers faced protests did the Commission finally react. By then, a large part of the process had already moved forward. If the authorities had entrusted responsibility, at the right time, to people who truly understand Bengal, they might have avoided this unnecessary chaos. Therefore, the Election Commission must take responsibility for turning the SIR process in West Bengal into a farce.
In the end, the god of democracy can only weep silently behind the curtain.
