Julio Ribeiro: Doubts over right to vote endanger Indian democracy

India’s founders were firm in their belief that the country should evolve as a secular democracy based on nation-wide elections in which parliamentarians and legislators would be chosen through adult franchise. There was some debate if that franchise should be restricted to the educated alone, but wisely, the founders of India decided to extend the vote to every Indian citizen above 18 years of age.

But recent developments have cast a shadow on this guarantee.

The special intensive revision of electoral rolls ordered by the Election Commission of India in Bihar, barely three months before the state goes to the polls, has come in for intense criticism from the Opposition parties, as well organisations such as the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Constitution Conduct Group.

The timing of the revision was what really raised suspicions. It is well known that the current government in Bihar, led by veteran Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) but guided by the Bharatiya Janata Party, is on a sticky wicket. Two young politicians, Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party, are the real contenders.

Paswan is a minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet but he has thrown his hat in the ring by announcing...

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