More than 20,000 police and paramilitary officers were deployed across New Delhi on Saturday to suppress demonstrations against the government’s controversial mass deletion of voters from electoral rolls. Authorities suspended internet access, barricaded the city center, and detained over 7,000 individuals by evening, including opposition leaders, journalists, and attorneys. Despite the heavy-handed response aimed at preventing a gathering at the traditional protest site of Jantar Mantar, thousands returned on Monday with renewed intensity.
The demonstrations demand the resignation of the chief election commissioner and the reversal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a nationwide process that authorities claim is designed to clean up voter lists but has resulted in the removal of 130 million people. This figure exceeds half the voting-eligible population in the United States during its midterm elections.
The crisis traces its origins to the summer of 2025, when the Election Commission initiated revisions ahead of several state legislative elections. Officials required voters to provide specific documentation to prove citizenship and eligibility. Civil society groups and political activists challenged the move in the Supreme Court of India in June 2025, arguing that the commission lacked the legal authority to mandate fresh proof of eligibility for voters already registered. Petitioners also contended that the document list was exclusionary, disproportionately affecting individuals from lower castes, classes, and genders who often lack access to government-issued papers.
For months, the Supreme Court avoided ruling on the legality of the massive revisions, instead engaging in prolonged negotiations regarding acceptable documentation, including whether Aadhaar, India’s national digital ID, would suffice. During this period, exclusions accelerated. In West Bengal, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had never previously won a state election, approximately 9 million voters—roughly 12% of the electorate—were removed.
Facing mounting exclusions, the Supreme Court established an administrative tribunal system staffed by judicial officers to handle appeals. When legal advocates warned that the backlog could take years to resolve, judges indicated that excluded individuals could vote provisionally, provided their names were eventually restored. The subsequent state election proceeded on the revised rolls, resulting in a BJP victory. Notably, about 90% of those in West Bengal who successfully appealed their exclusion were reinstated, suggesting widespread error. Nevertheless, the court stated the data did not indicate
If 90% of appealed cases in Bengal were reinstated, the initial removals were almost certainly errors. This needs investigation.
The provisional voting solution sounds like a band-aid on a bullet wound. How can anyone trust the system now?
130 million people deleted? That is an astronomical number. Something feels deeply wrong with the process here.