The madness now has a method. The second, nationwide, edition of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is no longer a knee-jerk solution in search of a problem, an afterthought in search of a rationale, a man-made disaster constantly in need of a coverup. The SIR has seen improvements. A crude instrument of indiscriminate mass disenfranchisement has now been refined into a precision weapon for targeted exclusion.

The latest announcement shows the ECI’s inability, or rather unwillingness, to learn from the experiment carried out in Bihar. As reported in this column (IE, October 7), instead of a quantum jump in the quality of electoral rolls, the SIR has resulted in a worsening in all key respects: A sharp decline in the adult-elector ratio, disproportionate deletions of w

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