The conventional thinking in our every day political-social or economic discourse is to talk of such things as development, reconciliation or election without taking into consideration the ‘inclusive’ context of a particular process. However this is changing and we are more and more talking of whether an experience or a process is inclusive in its scope and design. When we speak of inclusivity it does not necessarily mean that every person or item must be included. But rather to be inclusive would mean as far as possible giving fair representation to the different facet of our life. In recent years we have come to appreciate the need for having inclusive development or reconciliation. Perhaps today we need to discuss about the importance of having ‘inclusive elections’. And when we speak of or insist on ‘inclusive elections’ we want to emphasize on the quality of our democracy. The problem up till now is that the more we speak of democracy or India as the largest democracy in the world, every one from the politicians, media, society etc we speak about numbers. It seems to be the case that we craze about big numbers. Just consider the fact that we all express our satisfaction when we learn that 70-80 percent voter turnout has been recorded or that the Election Commission has conducted the biggest democratic exercise in the world. So perhaps we need to just step back and reflect on whether we are honest practitioners of the democratic ideals—free and fair elections.
There is no doubt that the Election Commission of India has become a vibrant and forward looking institution and most importantly people including our political parties, they have come to respect it. Given this groundswell of support, the Election Commission must continue to correct and reform the system of election where money, muscle power and all sorts of irregularities continue to stall our vision of an ‘inclusive elections’. Take the case of Nagaland where we have all sorts of complaints against the conduct of elections—starting from the unreliable, faulty electoral roll to all sorts of malpractice during election time. At present the Election Commission has become very conscious to ensure that the Electoral Roll is properly cleansed of all anomalies. The Chief Election Officer of Nagaland has also taken a pro active role to correct the Electoral Roll and also educate the public about registering as a voter and to exercise one’s franchise as a matter of fundamental right given to every bonafide citizen. All this are step in the right direction towards making our elections and democratic process more inclusive. Much more however needs to be done to ensure that only citizens are eligible to vote. Whether the present exercise of revising the electoral roll has made the correction or not, it is a fact that large number of genuine voters, they have been left out and all sorts of illegal names have found place in our hallowed portals of democracy. Let us not miss this vital point that fidelity of electoral rolls is an essential pre-requisite for conduct of free and fair elections. So perhaps our goal of an ‘inclusive elections’ should first begin with the cleansing of our electoral roll.
