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Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian and public intellectual, famously observed that man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitive elections while more expansive or maximalist definitions link democracy to guarantees of civil liberties and human rights, in addition to elections.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, completed in 14 states and Union Territories, and covering more than 60% of the population, shows a gap of more than 7 crore between the projected 18 (adult) population and the number of voters on electoral rolls. This includes around 5 crore persons who were on the electoral rolls in 2024-2025, but are now excluded as absentee, shifted, missing, logical discrepancy, etc.

These electors were not extended any opportunity of hearing as per Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, because their names – other than those covered under logical discrepancy – were not even included in the draft rolls.

While the removal of actual duplicates and deceased voters may have been correctly done, those deleted owing to absence, shifted, logical discrepancy, etc., may well be  alive and in all likelihood may have been eligible to vote.

This large gap gives rise to a multiplicity of questions, such as:

Are the citizens not on rolls voluntarily opting not to get themselves registered?

Are the population projections completely off the mark? The persons becoming eligible to vote in 2026 were born three years before Census 2011. Therefore, the reported drops in fertility rates since then do not apply to this category – they had already been born by then.

Was the number of deaths in Covid-19 much higher than the projections we have so far? Even then, the rise in mortality rates cannot account for such a huge gap (7 crore) between the actual and projected size of the 18-plus population.

Also, when more than 60% of the country’s eligible population has been........

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