A group of 124 former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers has issued an open letter defending the Election Commission of India (ECI) and its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls , arguing that allegations of electoral fraud must be supported by credible evidence.
The letter, addressed to the citizens of India, comes amid protests by Opposition leaders who allege irregularities in electoral rolls and claims of “vote chori”, or theft of votes.
The dispute has prompted protests in the national capital, with several Opposition leaders, including four former chief ministers, detained by police on Saturday as they attempted to join demonstrations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar were among the leaders detained while attempting to join protests in Delhi on Saturday. The group warned that unsubstantiated claims of vote rigging undermine public trust in democratic institutions. “We belong to no party. “We know what a rigged election looks like. We served in those days you know only from films: the katta at the booth, the bahubali’s men, ballot boxes stuffed or stolen, voters turned away. When violence speaks, democracy falls silent,” it continued. The group’s letter comes as the Opposition intensifies its campaign against the Election Commission. “If the system you call rigged is the same one that handed you your victories, ask yourself whether it is the system you doubt, or only the result. Democracies are worn away by those who create loud political narratives to incite volatile sections of citizens without sufficient proven evidence that their vote was never counted, or their vote doesn’t matter. That’s clearly an attempt to find relevance after being discarded by people through electoral system,” the letter read.
Because one word, ‘rigged’, is now thrown at our elections without evidence, and every repetition wounds democratic trust that belongs to all of us,” the letter read, we write. Booth capturing was so common that Parliament made it a crime in 1989.
The letter, addressed to the citizens of India, comes amid protests by Opposition leaders who allege irregularities in electoral rolls and claims of “vote chori”, or theft of votes. The former civil servants said they had spent their careers conducting and studying elections, including preparing electoral rolls and securing strong rooms where electronic voting machines (EVMs) are stored.
