The Congress party's relentless campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exposes a familiar pattern in its  political conduct: questioning democratic institutions whenever their functioning does not suit its political narrative. A party that has spent years questioning electoral transparency and accusing others of undermining democracy now finds itself uncomfortable with an exercise designed to strengthen the very foundation of free and fair elections.For Congress, electoral reforms appear welcome only when they serve its political interests. When duplicate entries, deceased voters and questionable registrations are discussed by opposition leaders, they become legitimate concerns. But when the Election Commission undertakes a nationwide exercise to identify and correct such discrepancies, the same party raises the alarm and turns an administrative process into a political controversy.

The Special Intensive Revision is not an exercise designed to benefit the BJP or any other political formation. Its fundamental objective is to ensure that electoral rolls reflect genuine voters, remove erroneous entries and protect the integrity of the democratic process. A clean electoral roll is the starting point of a credible election, and no responsible political party should oppose that objective.

SIR is about cleaning electoral rolls, not deleting democracyThe figures emerging from the exercise underline its scale and administrative effort. Across the states where SIR was undertaken, voters were provided between 100 and 158 days, or approximately four to five months, to complete the enumeration process.Of the country's approximately 95 crore voters, nearly 82 crore, accounting for around 88 per cent, submitted their Enumeration Forms. Approximately 13 crore entries were placed under the ASDD classification — Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate — during the preparation of revised electoral rolls.The reported figures included approximately 2.89 crore deceased voters and 1.01 crore duplicate entries. The remaining cases involved voters who were absent, had shifted or could not be traced during the verification exercise.

These numbers demand serious attention. Electoral rolls cannot remain static documents carrying the names of people who have died, permanently shifted or registered at multiple locations. Such discrepancies undermine the credibility of elections and create avoidable complications in the voting process.The exercise involved extensive field-level verification. Booth Level Officers (BLOs), along with political party functionaries, reportedly made three visits to voters' residences to collect enumeration forms and verify entries. This was not simply an administrative exercise conducted behind closed doors; it involved extensive ground-level participation.

Importantly, exclusion from a draft roll does not mean that a genuine voter has permanently lost the right to vote. Eligible individuals can seek inclusion through Form 6, subject to the prescribed verification process. The Election Commission has also provided opportunities for claims and objections to ensure that eligible citizens are not unfairly excluded.Congress has particularly questioned Form 7, the statutory mechanism for seeking deletion of names from electoral rolls. However, the figures cited in the BJP's compilation........

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