Rahul Gandhi, Ask Your Mother About Her Voter-List Entry

This is not merely a question about Sonia Gandhi. It is a question about the integrity of India's electoral system. And here Congress faces an uncomfortable question.

The party has made the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls a major political issue. Congress leaders have alleged that SIR is resulting in large-scale deletion of legitimate voters and have described the exercise in highly political terms. Jairam Ramesh, for instance, has characterised the alleged deletions as "Shah Instigated Removal" and questioned the methodology of the exercise.

Congress is perfectly entitled to challenge the methodology of SIR. If legitimate voters are being excluded, that deserves scrutiny. If notices are being issued without adequate explanation, transparency is necessary. What explanation will Congress submit on the issue of Sonia Gandhi

Electoral integrity has two sides. An eligible citizen must not be removed from the electoral roll. An ineligible person must not be put on it. There cannot be one standard for deletion and another standard for inclusion. That is the political-morality issue Congress cannot evade.

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If Rahul Gandhi wants the Election Commission to explain every questionable deletion, he should also be willing to demand an explanation for every questionable inclusion. If Congress insists that electoral rolls are too important to be subjected to political manipulation, it should have no difficulty supporting a transparent investigation whenever a credible allegation of improper inclusion arises even when the allegation concerns one of its most prominent leaders.

The same principle applies to Sonia Gandhi herself. Her reported response has been that the complaint is politically motivated and based on speculative assumptions, media reports and documents that have not established the alleged forgery. That defence is entirely open to her. Indeed, the ultimate truth of the allegation must be established through evidence, not political rhetoric.

That does not establish that Indira Gandhi personally knew about, authorised or facilitated any irregularity. Such a conclusion would require evidence. But it does make the question of institutional accountability particularly important. How was the name entered? Who processed the entry? What documents were produced? Who certified eligibility? Why was the name subsequently deleted? Why did it reappear? These are questions of record, not ideology.

Rahul Gandhi has built much of his recent political campaign around the integrity of the vote and alleged "vote theft". That makes consistency even more important. The credibility of an argument about electoral integrity cannot depend upon whose name appears in the electoral roll. The same principle must apply to Sonia Gandhi.

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The issue, therefore, should not be converted into a premature declaration of guilt. Nor should it be buried under the accusation of political conspiracy. The court has now provided the correct route - examine the evidence, hear the parties, obtain the necessary police response and pass a reasoned order. That is precisely what democratic politics should demand.

Congress can oppose SIR. Rahul Gandhi can question the Election Commission. Sonia Gandhi can contest the allegations. But none of them can reasonably claim that electoral-roll scrutiny is legitimate only when it concerns somebody else.

The sanctity of the vote begins with the sanctity of the electoral roll. And that sanctity cannot have a Congress standard, a BJP standard, a Gandhi-family standard or an ordinary-voter standard. There can be only one standard  the law.