Hamed Aziz Safwi works with various social organisations at the grassroots and also on matters of economic and public policy. His father, the late Haider Aziz Safwi, was an IPS officer who retired as Bengal DGP and went on to serve as a minister (2011-16) and finally as the deputy Speaker of the Assembly.
As a child, I was often asked about the age difference between my parents and me. Many mistook me for my father’s grandson because of the substantial gap between our ages.
While such questions often made us laugh, being born to much older parents came with its own share of anxieties, challenges, and, in time, unexpected pride.
I grew up with the constant fear of losing one or both of them early in life. Visiting friends’ homes, I would see parents brimming with energy, joining their children in games and activities — something that was rarely possible in my case.
Yet there were upsides too. I took pride in the name my father built for himself, first as an IPS officer and later as a minister in Bengal. His contributions to public institutions filled me with a sense of honour and responsibility.
Being a ‘late child’ also meant that my parents had moved beyond their years of struggle and hustle. While they lacked the energy to travel widely, they gave me their undivided attention — until age and health intervened, and I had to quietly give up some of my own aspirations for the larger good.
All this was imaginable, even manageable. What was not imaginable was that this deeply personal family reality would one day be classified by the software of a constitutional authority as a ‘logical discrepancy’. Who decides what is logical, and on what basis, remains unknown.
Process-punishment
The Election Commission of India’s (EC) recent special intensive revision (SIR) has compelled me — and lakhs of others — to repeatedly ‘prove’ relationships that our voter cards already acknowledge. While many of us may eventually find our
names on the final electoral roll (and one says may advisedly, given the unpredictability of unofficial instructions), the real punishment lies in the repeated verifications and hearings themselves.
The EC, while announcing the SIR, had made the process sound very simple — all we had to do was fill up an enumeration form given by a booth-level official (BLO) and map ourselves to our parents/ grandparents/ relative whose name appeared in the SIR of 2002 and the job was done.
Sounds simple? Would have been had it not been for a series of informal orders — now called ‘WhatsApp orders’ — that made sure that the process itself became the punishment.
As stated by The Reporters’ Collective in its report, the first ‘WhatsApp order’ abruptly shortened the time given to the BLOs to submit the enumeration forms — the official date specified by the EC was initially December 4 (later extended to December 11) — and also directed them to mark those voters who could not
submit the enumeration forms within the new date as absent.
While this led to a lot of panic, the task was ultimately carried out by BLOs who stayed up past midnight to fulfil these instructions.
The second ‘WhatsApp order’ gave rise to the concept of ‘logical discrepancies’ — hitherto not specified at any point of time by the EC when announcing the SIR.
What followed these WhatsApp orders was a public acknowledgment by the EC that a software would be marking cases for hearings and those with documents that gave rise to ‘logical discrepancies’ would also be called if flagged by the software.
However, no information exists on who designed the software or what the antecedents of the software are.
Herein begins a process that has led to panic, anger and distress among a section of the population.
The human cost
- Being called for hearings despite repeated re-verification and clear parental linkage
I have had to go twice over for re-verification of my name in the voter list despite both my parents having their name in the 2002 voter list.
The reason for my name being flagged is that my father, the late Haider Aziz Safwi, is 53 years older than me — a violation of the logic flagged by the WhatsApp order.
Worse still, there is no receipt that one receives for these documents submitted since the re-verification is being carried out without a formal notice in the first place. Despite all of this, I have now been given a notice to appear for a ‘hearing’ to once again submit all documents and explain the age gap.
What role a child has in their parents’ decision to have them is not yet known to me.
- Non-acceptance of Aadhaar despite Supreme Court directives
As per the directive of the Supreme Court, the Aadhaar card can be used as a valid proof of identity. Simple right? Not quite — the Aadhaar card is reportedly not being accepted by the portal of the EC as valid proof during these ‘re-verifications’.
In my case, I have had to submit my father’s and my passport,
Class X marksheet, government ID, etc, to explain the age difference — this despite Aadhaar clearly mentioning our ages.
- Mass re-verification without formal notice
In Uluberia Purba — the constituency my father represented between 2011 and 2018 and where I currently work with numerous social organisations — ward no. 2 in the municipality has received the name of over 2,000 voters for re-verification in a day. As many as 2,000 out of 7,000 voters are called for re-verification without formal notice, all on the basis of ‘logical discrepancies’.
Similarly, ward 1 has more than 1,900 such calls, ward 7 has 2,500 and ward 8 has 1,100. Such figures will not be counted while revealing the figures of people called for hearings.
The BLOs too have to face this problem as they now have to visit
each house again for re-verification. Moreover, despite this re-verification, these voters will again be called for a hearing to once again satisfy another official the EC has appointed — a clear example of the process becoming the punishment.
There have also been reports of people falling sick during these hearings because of the fear of losing their constitutional right to vote.
- Arbitrary rejection of new voter applications
The EC has taken great pains to state that the SIR will not just remove fake names but also add new ones as no eligible voter should lose the right to vote.
However, experience says otherwise.
Consider the case of Shamoli Singh, who had come to me for help to fill her voter application form (Form 6). She had applied for new entry into the voter list from Tollygunge where she has made a small home for herself. Hailing from Kakdweep in South 24-Parganas, Singh is poor and has little education.
Her mother’s name features in the 2002 SIR list from Kakdweep while her husband’s name is there in the draft list of 2025 from Tollygunge. Despite this, her form was rejected by the officials interviewing her. She had taken all the documents necessary — SIR proof, Aadhaar card, mutation of land certificate, notarial certificate of name change after marriage, PAN card, etc. Despite this, the application was rejected. She reports that rejection of applications seems to be routine — addition of voters?
- Escalating and retrospective documentation requirements
In cases where voters are being mapped with grandparents — they are being made to now submit proof of family link of three generations (often not easily available) despite assurances that they would not be required to do so. These instances are also being considered as ‘re-verification’ cases.
Furthermore, some voters have been declared ‘missing/ absent’ despite submitting enumeration forms.
In Howrah Uttar for instance, two of my friends have had their names deleted despite submitting the enumeration forms and have to now apply for new voter cards entirely.
- Panic, exploitation and confusion at the grassroots
In rural/ suburban areas, voters are under significant panic and stress over arranging documents. In rural areas, some local cyber cafes are charging as high as ₹50 for printouts from these poor people who are going there to update their documents.
There is significant confusion over what documents are actually needed since the requirements are changing constantly. As a result, people have to run in panic to get new documents ready and some local elements are taking full advantage of this situation.
Daily wage earners lose income, elderly voters are left distressed, and BLOs — many of them schoolteachers — sacrifice family time to meet informal directives.
Young professionals living outside their home constituencies have had to extend holidays to accompany elderly parents for hearings whose purpose remains unclear.
Exercise in inequality
For a lot of people, the SIR was a mandatory and much needed process to remove fake/ illegitimate voters. To be fair, our voter lists did need updation and correction. However, what we now have is a lopsided process where the poor have to run from pillar and post to arrange documents while the privileged can send their ‘staff’ or use digital means to arrange the documents.
According to the government of India, there are 81.35 crore beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana — which means that more than half of our population needs government support for their daily nutritional needs. It is
this section of the population that has been worst affected by the ever-changing needs of the EC. Any failure to submit any document would lead to their names being cancelled.
To look at every citizen of India with doubt is not a part of any legal principle. It is nobody’s case that fake/ legitimate voters should continue to have their names on the electoral list. However, when an exercise in correction ends up giving rise to the legitimate probability of some citizens losing their constitutional right to vote — it is a cause for introspection and concern.
In India, the voter card is the one document that makes every citizen feel equal — poor or rich, urban or rural, educated or not. It is for this reason that the EC is an independent constitutional body — described by Dr B.R. Ambedkar as a ‘bulwark of
the Constitution’. That bulwark must now reaffirm its role — by ensuring transparency, accountability, and above all, trust in the democratic process.