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EC's edict on voter identification is largely ignored

Sharat Pradhan in Shahjahanpur

Never mind what the Election Commission of India says. For the voter in this largely rural belt in western Uttar Pradesh, photo-identity cards have no meaning.

It wasn't just the voter who was blissfully unconcerned about the official edict on I-cards. So were the officials engaged in the electoral process.

Even as polling began in almost all centres of the sugarcane-growing Shahjahanpur district on the dot of eight, both polling officers and voters were indifferent towards the need for identification.

Though many of the voters at the Rajhaua-Khurd primary school polling centre on the outskirts of Shahjahanpur town knew that the Election Commission had made it identification papers mandatory, they had not cared to carry any.

"My photo-identity card is yet to be issued," said Mool Chand, a dalit farmer. "I do have my land records, but forgot to bring them along."

Bipin Kumar Singh, a dalit from a neighbouring hamlet, who had trekked down a slushy road to reach the polling centre, was seen pleading with the officer in-charge to let him cast his vote without any identification, because his name figured on the electoral rolls. Argued the village head Arvind Singh, "You can't ask them to trudge back 2-3km to get their documents; for all you know he many not come back!"

The presiding officer promptly came out with a solution. "We can verify every voter's identity by cross-checking his name with the list of residents of a particular village provided to us by the lekhpal (the lowest revenue official) of the area," he told rediff.com

But this list only carries the names and addresses of voters without any photographs, leaving much scope for impersonation.

A little further, in Simri village and Roza town, things were no different. Officials, policemen as well as polling agents of different candidates belonging to rival parties or independents seemed ready with similar arguments to rescue voters who were not carrying identification.

Clearly, it is the balance of convenience that ensures silence from all quarters on this issue.

Impersonation was not the only evil prevalent here. Intimidation was present in ample measure. In at least two villages, dalits confessed that they were voting for the ruling party because the local tough had told them to do so. As a 55-year-old woman explained, "I have to live in this very village." Another old man said his vote had already been cast when he reached the polling station. He refused to give his name, saying, "You will go and write my name in the papers and they will finish me here."

In another village, 30km from the town, retired schoolmaster Ram Lal complained of intimidation by the opposition Samajwadi Party. "Left to me, I would vote for the BSP, but I had no choice, I fear for my life," he said.

Asked how anyone would know whom he had voted for, the 70-year-old retorted, "Don't you see them peeping from behind your shoulder?" He was referring to the polling agents of different parties who have free access inside the polling stations.

Those who were deprived of their vote or intimidated by local goons refused to even complain for fear of reprisals. And officials rarely mustered the courage to oppose the musclemen, while the police preferred to remain spectators. "I am not mad to lodge a complaint and face trouble all my life," said Raj Kumar, a small farmer.

"How can we fight these fellows?" argued a middle-aged polling officer manning a booth in Simri village. "We have to go back to our homes after completing our duty. No policeman will come to our rescue then."

His colleague said, "It is best to keep quiet and just do your work."

The silver lining, if you can call it that, was the remarks of a doctor, who has settled down in Roza town after retiring from a cushy government job. "I was posted in Bihar where I have been witness to the blatant rigging that goes on under the nose of the administration; if you compare that with whatever was happening here, you would regard the process as absolutely free and fair!"

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