The leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Mr Rahul Gandhi has finally presented his case on voter list fraud, he had been alleging for the past few weeks. What he presented is a damning indictment of the election process and the supervisory competence of the election commission. On the face of it what he said is not new or unheard of, but the scale he demonstrated is horrendous. We need to remember that elections are essentially about numbers, and its integrity is not absolute but ‘significant’. significance of the anomaly or aberration, is the test that an election must pass. What Mr Gandhi showed today was a demonstration of what unmatched, financial resources, organizational strength and bureaucratic support can do to the election process. The five major issues he highlighted, are present in all electoral rolls and local political workers, generally build a base vote through these. Things as simple as getting your friends and relatives to register their votes in your constituency, with shared addresses, getting them to retain their votes in the booth even after migrating or sometimes saving the votes of the deceased from getting deleted. Add to this voter duplication, is not very common. But it is the numbers that matter. Generally these are not more than 2-3% of the total electorate. Here it is above 20%. This is unspeakable. The election commission therefore is guilty both for its omissions and commissions. It has failed to, willingly perhaps, scrutinize such massive electoral roll manipulation and at the same time enabled its abuse by spacing the election dates adequately. The other, more serious charge, is of obstructing and destroying evidence. Its refusal to supply the electoral roll, until last minute, that too in a paper format that is machine opaque, and lastly destroying cctv evidence. These are enough to indict the commission in any civilized forum, but these are times when we are repudiating civilization itself. Coming back to question of vitiating the election process. Of course a pliant and complicit election commission enables it, but the question is bigger than it. Election commission as a state body, cannot be expected to remain immune from the forces acting on the electoral and political systems. Though its primary role is to ensure a level playing field, it can only manage to balance some gaps. When there is a collusion of infinite corporate wealth, the mammoth organizational machinery of near fascist bodies and appropriation of religion and traditions with their symbols, we are not looking at a democratic system. The scale of all this makes elections a non contest. What Mr Gandhi has demonstrated today, is as much an indictment of the political system, the corporates and the state of society, as it is of the election commission. If the election commission is able to tap into its proud and venerable institutional legacy and pull its act together, our democracy may be restored, as of now it is redundant.
Elections can become a farce
