This recent observation from the Supreme Court, while legally pragmatic, carries a weight that should unsettle any practitioner of democracy. In an effort to sanitise this country’s electoral rolls through a Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the administrative machinery has prioritised a “pure” register over an inclusive one. But as the ink dries on the first phase of polling in West Bengal, the gap between institutional purity and individual franchise has widened into a chasm. The sheer volume of exclusions is staggering: nearly 90 lakh names removed in West Bengal alone. While the Election Commission maintains that AI-driven audits were necessary to purge "ghost voters", the aftermath suggests a........

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