The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls has begun in a number of states and Union territories. Poll-bound Bengal is among these states. What should have been a routine administrative endeavour of cleaning and updating the electoral rolls has acquired a distinct political charge and led to public anxiety. The reasons are not far to seek. The Opposition has alleged that the SIR is an attempt on the part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to disenfranchise segments of the population. The BJP on its part claims that the SIR is necessary to rid the nation’s electoral rolls of infiltrators. It is pertinent to point out that the sanctity of the electoral rolls is integral to the health of a representative democracy. So a periodic SIR is a necessity. But what is equally needed for this exercise to remain unbiased is for the Election Commission of India to be neutral in its conduct, in reality as well as in the public eye. Such institutional unbiasedness — like Caesar’s wife, the EC should be above suspicion — is of utmost importance as it enables this august institution to retain its autonomy. There is reason to argue that the EC’s impartiality has not remained untainted. For instance, the change in the appointment process of the chief election commissioner — the chief justice of India was replaced by a Union cabinet minister in the selection committee — raised concerns of executive encroachment. In Bihar, the EC has also come across as a brusque, insensitive institution, unwilling at times to empathise with the people’s concerns regarding the demands of the SIR. This is unwarranted.

An unprejudiced EC is of fundamental importance on another count. The EC is dependent on the machinery of the state governments to do the groundwork in the case of the SIR. State officials and teachers, for various reasons, are often averse to being seen as working against the ruling dispensation. This further underscores the need for the EC to be an independent body as envisioned by the Constitution. The signal of impartiality from the very top — the EC — would instil the need among the state administrations to not be hostage to the ruling political establishment. A relevant question needs to be raised in this context: is there a case to create a separate, autonomous cadre for an engagement like the SIR that will be immune to the political pressures of the day?