INDIA bloc still waiting for President's appointment as ECI concerns deepen

The opposition INDIA bloc says it is still waiting for an appointment with the President to raise its concerns about the Election Commission of India, even after agreeing to trim its proposed delegation from 15 members to 10. The delay was reported as CPI(M) MP John Brittas received a response to his petition on the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, controversy.

At the heart of the dispute is trust in the institution that runs India's elections. Opposition leaders have pointed to reports of differences within the three-member Commission over SIR decisions, including objections said to have been raised repeatedly over many months. Brittas has argued that changes to Form 6, a statutory form under the Registration of Electors Rules, cannot be made by executive discretion without amending the rules, and that Article 324 gives the Commission supervisory authority, not a free-standing power to rewrite the law.

The Commission has rejected suggestions of internal disagreement and said its SIR schedules were approved unanimously. That assurance has not closed the matter, because the opposition's questions are specific: who authorised the online requirements, how were objections recorded and resolved, who controls the electoral-roll database, and what safeguards exist against the irreversible exclusion of eligible voters.

The stakes are not abstract. Brittas has warned that requirements built around a relative's electoral history can burden first-time voters, migrant workers, displaced persons, orphans and citizens estranged from their families. The Supreme Court, in proceedings linked to SIR, has questioned the mechanical issuance of notices based on logical discrepancies and sought the Commission's response.

For a constitutional body, being unavailable is itself a message. When parties that contest elections cannot get a hearing from the President on the referee's conduct, and cannot get a full institutional answer from the Commission, suspicion fills the silence. A credible poll body does not fear scrutiny; it publishes its reasoning, preserves its audit trail, and meets the players before the next match begins.