The Indian electoral system is back in the news because of the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), where critics claim that nearly 150 million voters could be omitted from the national electoral rolls. Former Indian Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi has called it a scam. Political activist and psephologist Yogendra Yadav sees it as a backdoor attempt to impose a National Register of Citizens (NRC). What is the NRC? I will explain what that is and how it fits into the BJP's politics. And how it is linked to the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), now an act (CAA).

It all began in Assam, where the record of citizenship dated back to 1951. A major change came in 2013. To understand the court case that triggered this immense change, one must understand the predatory political mood in the country at the time.

The Manmohan Singh-led UPA government was completing a decade in power, and India was globally on the rise. This is the moment when a country's elite feel they no longer need procedural cover to seize power. Anna Hazare's 2011 movement had already fatally weakened the UPA government. The RSS and assorted billionaires were out for the kill and making their role plain. Sangh figures, including KN Govindacharya and later Bhaiyyaji Joshi, admitted that RSS ground cadres, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers and affiliated networks had provided the logistical muscle, crowd mobilisation and stage management for both Hazare's Ramlila Maidan protests and Baba Ramdev's anti-black-money campaign. In April 2012, Subrata Roy, promoter of the now defunct but then very powerful Sahara Group, began nudging India in a nativist, Hindutva direction.........

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