You’re not Eligible – “Not Indian Citizen”
This is not about Assam or Jammu & Kashmir. It is about Karnataka, one of the progressive states of India. The State Election Commission routinely uploads information about the new voter registration applications and rejections if any along with reasons for rejections. In October 2018 one of the authors accessed these data from the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer’s website and analyzed the causes for high rejections. For the state as a whole, only about 37 percent of applications were accepted for issuance of voter’s ID card, whereas 19 percent for some valid reasons such as being underaged, not residing at the stated address, and duplicate application. As high as 18 percent of applications are rejected on the grounds ‘Not India Citizen (NIC)’ and another 24 percent are labeled as ‘otherwise disqualified’. NIC as a reason from out of all rejected stands at about 32 percent and about 52 thousand spread all over Karnataka in all constituencies.
The authors made a quick survey of individuals/households who were labeled as NIC in a few selected sample areas. There was no element of truth that such individuals were foreign nationals such as from Bangladesh, Nepal, or any other country. All were original residents, while most have their Aadhaar IDs, many had school and birth certificates. Some live in their own homes with proper ownership documents.
A concerned citizen’s delegation met the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, at his office on 7th November 2018. The CEO was assisted by the Additional CEO, the Joint CEO, and other officers. The concerned citizen team comprised a former Secretary of Government of India, a retired Captain of the Indian Air force, a retired Captain from India Nay along with the Chairman of CRDDP and the senior author of this OPED. Interestingly, this meeting was held under the direction of the Chief Election Commissioner India, New Delhi.
The CEO, for the first 30 minutes of the meeting, was reluctant to accept that such data existed. A request to do a spot check in the system (the website) by EC authorities was declined; at which point one of the members of the delegation displayed the data on his laptop. This is when the CEO conceded leading to a healthy discussion.
The CEO directed his senior officials to conduct an inquiry at a couple of places in the city of Bengaluru and assured a follow-up information-sharing meeting in about two weeks.
Whether the said inquiry took place or not is not yet known, but there has been a definite impact, the highlighted names are no more in the “Not Indian Citizen” list as of 17th Nov 2018. The said applicant status is now either blank or has been marked shifted residence.
The resulting actions pose significant questions about the credibility and methodology adopted for the whole process. The application status “Not Indian Citizen” has been removed since then. While it is important that the system identifies any “non-citizens” and excludes them from the voter list, it must be done with thorough due diligence.
The electoral roll is one of the key documents used in compiling the NRC in Assam, while we do not say that there is any such thing being done in Karnataka care must be taken to ensure these rolls are maintained and updated after the due process is followed. Whether it is the case of machine error or human error, the fact remains that a list was prepared, finalized, and uploaded to the public domain. No one monitored the process and no one verified or validated the correctness of such an important list, which would have the power to put the burden of proof on ordinary and unaware citizens until concerned citizens stumbled on such a list and brought it to the notice of authorities.
Will the state election commission take long-term actions, correct processes, and inform stakeholders for a fair hearing for not just this but other rejection reasons? Key questions remain unanswered:
When was this ‘Not Indian Citizen (NIC)’ as a separate category get instituted into rejections of the new applicants.
What is the precise methodology EC has prescribed for the determination of Citizenship? Who has been assigned to do this? Where are these procedures provided? Is there any training?
Have the applicants been notified about their application status? Have they been given a fair hearing to prove otherwise?
Did EC do any review after they discovered that 30% of people rejected were on this ground?
The purpose of this op-ed is to make aware all the citizens of India that voter ID is a very important document and individuals should also take steps to ensure that their names are enrolled and follow up to ensure that they are not marked erroneously. Such errors can create problems for people at large and legally speaking it will take considerable effort on the part of the individuals to correct them. Consider a response to the Karnataka fiasco from one of the high officials of the Electoral Commission of India – ‘you can go for an appeal against the declaration by the elections commission that you are not an Indian citizen. The issue is too serious for individual objections, and the authors fear that the extent of procedural violations is highly consequential.
Download the report here.