The electoral system in India is compromised, writer-activist Arundhati Roy said in Kolkata on Wednesday, expressing her views on the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country.
"I think the electoral system in this country is now completely compromised. SIR is just one part of it, so we have to see whether we still have the right to call ourselves a democracy,” she said.
Roy was responding to a question from The Telegraph Online My Kolkata on the sidelines of an event held at St Xavier's College about her latest book, Mother Mary Comes To Me.
“The last thing standing (between autocracy and the people) was elections. Now that is also not trusted by people,” Roy, known as much for her books like Azaadi and The God of Small Things as for her leftist activism, added.
The second stage of the SIR process has resulted in the deletion of near;y 6.5 crore names from voter lists of nine states and three Union Territories where the exercise is underway. This includes Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
The SIR process has faced multiple legal challenges and the Supreme Court is hearing them. The apex court bench on Tuesday asked the Election Commission if a person’s right to vote can be taken away till the central government decides on that person’s citizenship.
Critics of the SIR say the process is exclusionary by design and put the onus of proof of innocence on voters. The Election Commission maintains that a clean electoral roll is a must for democracy.
Bengal’s ruling party, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, has been one of the biggest critics of the SIR process. It has filed a case in the Supreme Court and been parading in political rallies people that the party says were struck off the rolls by the SIR as dead. Mamata has written five letters to the chief election commissioner over various problems and flaws with the SIR process.
The country’s ruling party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, has provided full-throated backing for the SIR, calling it an essential tool to weed out undocumented immigrants it calls infiltrators.