End of Democracy? | Why Massive Protests Have Erupted Over India’s Voter List — Transcript

Since 1947, we have never been sitting in this place, which is that our elections are fundamentally broken and the capture of the institutions that has been t that has taken place has also open to question. This is the first time in independent history that India is sitting at this point. Ladies and gentlemen, a new protest has erupted in India. But this time it is questioning the backbone of Indian democracy itself. And this time the protesters are demanding for the resignation of the chief election commissioner Ganesh Kumar himself.

[music] Ganesh Kumar must resign immediately. [music] [music] Machine [music] software access. [music] [music] Now if you think this is yet another student protest, I must tell you that the loudest warnings are not coming from outside. They are coming from inside the election commission itself.

>> The election commission has become a one-man show. >> Divisions within the election commission. [music] Two election commissioners had opposed several decisions of the body. They raised 14 objections in 10 [music] months. >> Three may say two commissioners are saying we don't even know what is happening around us. >> Now as much as I believe in the power of protest, I also have to tell you that the resignation of any one person is not going to change anything.

So the question is what exactly is this protest all about? How does the election commission actually work? Where exactly could the election of India be compromised? What objections did the two election commissioners express? Why are people demanding the resignation of Ganesh Kumar? And why do I say that this resignation will not change anything in our system? [music] But before we move on, I want to quickly thank Neurogum for sponsoring this content. people. Today, because of Real's short form content and constant notifications, the average person's attention span has significantly dropped. Some studies [music] suggest that it is now around 47 seconds. And we see the effects of this in real life, blanking out during an important meeting or reading the same paragraph again and again and yet not registering anything.

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[music] Guys, before we understand why people are demanding Ganesh Kumar's resignation, we first need to understand how do [music] elections in India actually happen and who controls the entire process. You see Indian election is the biggest election in the world that decides who gets the power to govern a country of 1.4 billion people. But to make sure that this contest stays free and fair, India needs an independent body to conduct the elections in a fair manner. That referee is the election commission of India. The election commission of India has three main jobs. Number one is conducting elections. [music] So it announces schedules, supervises polling arrangements, deploys EVMS and oversees counting and results. Secondly, it enforces the election rules. [music] This is where they implement something called model code of conduct during elections. Basically, it is a set of rules to be enforced when the election happens. This is to ensure free and fair elections happen in India. This commission can take action when parties or candidate violate these rules. So, if a party tries to bribe a voter, the EC

is supposed to punish them. But job three is the most powerful job of all. This job is to decide who is allowed to vote and who is not allowed to vote. This power is determined by something called a voter list. So if your name is on the voter list, you can vote. If it is not, you cannot vote at all. Now it does not really matter whether you carry Aadhaar, PAN or even a passport in your wallet. If you're not on the voter list, you just don't get to vote. As of January 2025, this list has 99.1 cr names or 991 million names. Nearly 100 cr Indians. And this list does not care who you are. You could be a minister, a movie star or even the richest man in India. If your name is not on this list, you cannot vote. Simple. So now the question is how does your name get on this list? Now pay attention to this because this is super super important for the premise of the video. Meet Priya. Priya is 18 years old. She lives in Goa and she's about to vote for the very first time. So she fills up a form

called form six and this form goes to a local officer in her area called an ERO or electoral registration officer. This officer checks her documents and confirms that she is a real person. Then her name is added to the list and she becomes an eligible voter. Now the crazy thing about the Indian election system is that Priya's officer is just one of the nearly 4,000 such officers spread all across India for every MLA seat. So the power to add your name or remove it does not sit with one powerful man in Delhi. It sits with a local officer right there in your own town. And [music] this means if someone wanted to manipulate this list, they could not just bribe one person. They would have to bribe 4,000 different officers sitting in 4,000 different towns. Now, I know what you're thinking. By a rich party can just bribe all 4,000, right?

Well, every name they add or remove shows up on a public list. So, every party, every candidate and every voter can check these names. [music] That is safeguard number one. On top of this, this list is local and decentralized, which means no single officer controls more than their own constituencies list. This again minimizes the chance of manipulation. This is the second layer of safeguard. Then comes protection layer three. The election commission is not run by one person. It is a three member body. So the chief election commissioner sits with two other election commissioners. And even though he's the chief election commissioner, [music] he cannot take every major decision on his own. So if the chief wants to take a decision and the other two disagree with [music] him, their decision wins over the chief election commissioner. That is how a chief election commissioner is prevented from becoming the almighty.

This is how brilliantly India's election system is built. But now the question is if this system is so fair and so protected, why are the people saying that the Indian elections are unfair and why are the citizens, activists and opposition parties demanding the resignation of Ganesh Kumar? Well, it all begins with three simple letters SIR or special intensive revision. Now I know this sounds like a boring government term, but don't worry at all. It's actually very simple to understand. Every year the election commission makes small fixes to the voter list. So if someone turns 18, they're added to the list. If someone dies, they're removed from the list. If someone move cities, they're transferred from one constituency to the other. But these small fixes do not always work. Like in 2022, a man named S. Mukerji went to vote in Delhi and he found that his father's name was still on the list. But the problem was his father had died years ago. In fact, the family had even asked for the name to be removed, but it was still there. Now, imagine this error happening all across India. People die,

but their names stay. [music] People move, but their names stay registered to their old constituency. And some people even get registered twice. So, every few decades, [music] the commission stops fixing the list and starts revising the entire list from scratch. And this revision is called [music] special intensive revision. So each and every voter is checked again one by [music] one. So when Bihar did this in 2025, it found nearly 22 lakh dead voters and they also found 7 lakh people registered twice. These are called ghost voters.

And ghost voters by the way are super super dangerous to our democracy. Why? Because this name can be used by someone else who should not vote and eventually the entire election can be rigged with ghost voters. So once in a while to fix this problem, the commission cleans the list and rebuilds it from scratch. Now can you guess when this list was last revised? Let's take a guess. 2019? No. 2014? No. 2009? No. It was done 24 years ago in 2002 and 3. So do you realize there is a very very good chance that ghost voters have voted to contaminate the electoral system already. And now this revision is happening again in 2025 and 2026.

And this is where the problem starts. Now listen to this very carefully. If this list removes dead voters and duplicate voters and makes our democracy stronger, why exactly are people protesting? Well, critics of the election commission say that the election commission is doing something dirty in this cleanup. And according to them, the special intensive revision is quietly breaking two safeguards that keep our elections fair. And by the way, this warning is not coming from a random protester or a Facebook group. It is coming from inside the election commission itself. And that is what makes it absolutely shocking. According to the internal notes reviewed by the Indian Express, the two other election commissioners, Sukubhir Singh and Vive Jooshi, they have reportedly raised some red flags. The question is what exactly are these red flags? Let's start with safeguard number one, which is decentralization of voter list. Now what was safeguard layer 1? It ensures that your name is not controlled by one man in Delhi and the names of all the voters is spread across 4,000 local officers all across India. And according to

leaked documents, those two commissioners have warned again and again in internal notes about something called a gradual centralization of the voter list. In simple words, the power that once sat with 4,000 officers is quietly being pulled and centralized into one room in Delhi. The question is how exactly are they doing it? Well, as it turns out, local officers are reportedly complaining that they no longer have access to the voter list as in they can no longer add a name, delete a name or fix a mistake without Delhi's permission. The question is this entire operation was supposed to be decentralized, right? So, suddenly, how is this being centralized? Well, to understand it, we first have to have a look at how S used to work earlier.

Earlier, it was pretty simple. An officer took the oldest and went door to door to check if the voter was alive, shifted or registered twice. But the most important part was your name was safe unless the government could prove a reason to remove it. So the officer had to prove that the voter was dead or shifted. So do you see how the system worked? [music] You didn't have to prove that you are alive. The election commission had to give the proof and remove you. But this time one thing changed. This time the voter list is not being checked by an officer. This time it is being checked by a software.

Sounds great, right? Software is faster, software is [music] better. And obviously a software can do a job better than a Sarci Babu, right? So what could possibly go wrong? Well, the problem is not software, it is in the process. So critics argue that the software takes your name from today's list and searches for you on the old 2002 2003 sire list using it as a base. [music] If it finds your name, your name is kept in the list and you are safe. If you were too young back then or your name is not in the list, then it searches for your father, your mother, your grandparents' name and tries to find a match. If it finds a family match, you are safe. But if it doesn't happen, you are marked as unmapped and you get a notice after which you have to prove with documents to be added to the list of voters. And after finding your family name, it runs a series of logic checks like is your father's name spelled exactly the same?

Whether the age difference between you and your father is between 15 and 50 years. And these logic checks are not even the same everywhere. Different states run different rules and even if you fail one of these checks, you will get a notice. In fact, in Bengal elections, the 2002 list was mostly written in Bangla. So when it was turned into a digital format, computers translated it into English. For example, Mundal became Mundal. Ages got mixed up and there were a lot of errors and the software called these logical discrepancies. And this problem was so huge that in Bengal alone over 1.2 cr people got flagged. So do you see what changed? Earlier the government had to prove that you should be removed from the list. But now the machine flags you.

It sends you a notice and you have to prove why you should stay in the list by providing necessary documents. Now I know what you're thinking. Obviously it is supposed to be like that, right? Why can't people show a simple document and get on with their lives? Why are these people criticizing the election commission over a simple goddamn process? Well, I wish it was that simple because even I thought the same. As it turns out, there is a big complexity here. Critics say that this process is quietly building a central database. A central database where local officers can no longer add, remove, or even fix a name on their own. In fact, the two election commissioners even complained to the cabinet secretary that decisions were being taken behind their back. For example, they stated that in Goa, Goa's local officers checked 97 flag cases and found that all 97 were genuine voters.

But the problem was they could not put those names back in the list because the software had no option to reverse it and the control was with Delhi. In fact, local officers sent eight emails to Delhi requesting to add these 97 voters again. [music] But nothing happened and the final list did not include any of these 97 voters. So do you realize 97 genuine voters were simply taken out of the list even though they were fully alive and fully eligible to vote. So now do you realize how big this problem is at scale? If a local officer cannot restore a real voter without Delhi snord, the list [music] is no longer decentralized and it is bound to make a ton of mistakes all across the country.

In fact, across the country, over 13 cr names have already been cut from the draft roles. 13 crores is basically 13% of the voters in the entire country. And you know what guys, the story does not end in Goa. Look what happened in West Bengal in February 2026. names are being flagged and removed from Bengal's list so fast that the Supreme Court had to step in and it asked judges to check 60 lakh flagged voters one by one. And right now, even after the elections are over, 38 lakh cases are still waiting for a verdict. And out of those 38 lakh pending cases, around 16 lakh appeals, I repeat, 16 lakh appeals were filed to remove voters from the list and not to bring the voters back. And you know what's the scariest mystery of all? All these appeals were filed in the name of the Election Commission of India. But you know who filed them? Nobody seems to know. Yes, I'm not even kidding. It was none of the election [clears throat] commissioners and not even that Bengala

officer. Nobody knows who did it. And according to internal notes in August, Sandhu had to write to his own officials and ask Baba, please tell us who authorized these appeals and who filed them. Now think about the situation for a second. appeals to remove 16 lakh voters were filed in the election commission's name. But two of the three people running the election commission say that they were never told. And this is where critics say that safeguard number two starts to break. Now do you remember safeguard layer two? The election commission is not one man. It is led by three people at the top. If the chief election commissioner agrees to something, the other two can say no.

But that safeguard only works if all three election commissioners know exactly what is happening. But as it turns out according to internal notes they did not know what was happening at all. So on paper the entire special intensive revision across India runs under all three commissioners. But in reality in just 10 months Sandhu and Jooshi have formally objected on record at least [music] 14 times. Each time they say that decisions were taken and orders went out without they even knowing it. So for decisions like adding and deleting names in SIR, two of the three election commissioners were kept in the dark 14 [music] times. So by the looks of it, the safeguard still seems to be there on paper, but in practice, critics [music] say that it has been quietly switched off. And then came the biggest disagreement. Do you remember form six? It is a form that every new voter fills to [music] be in the voter list. Till now, it only asked about your name, your age, and your address. But in May, Jooshi warned in writing that you cannot change his form without

government changing the rules first and Sandhu agreed to this. But in July, the form was changed anyway. It now asks, were you or your parents or your grandparents on the list of the last S? And you cannot skip this question at all. Now again, two of the three did not support this decision, but it was taken anyway. So in August, Sandhu called it illegal in internal notes and said that it must be removed. But even a few weeks later, it was still there. So here's what the critics are saying. On paper, three people run the election commission. But according to critics, the decisions are now being taken unilaterally. But the question is, what does the election commission have to say about all these allegations? Well, I'll attach the link to what the election commission has to say in the description box and you can go and refer the same and understand what they have to say.

But now let's come back to the most important part of the story. Let's talk about Ganesh Kumar. You see a lot of amateurs think that if Ganesh Kumar steps down everything will be back to normal and elections will be held in a fair manner. Well that is great for headlines but it doesn't solve the problem because the real problem is the system of selection for the chief election commissioner. Right now chief election commissioner is chosen by a panel [music] of three people. The prime minister, a cabinet minister picked by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. So do you see this? Two out of the three people can directly and indirectly be chosen by the prime minister who will obviously side with the ruling party. So in 2023, the Supreme Court tried to fix this problem.

They put the Chief Justice of India on the panel. But the parliament then made a new law and replace the Chief Justice with a cabinet minister. That is why many experts believe that the simple fix to this problem is to bring the [music] judge back on the panel. So then one from the government, one from the opposition and one will be a neutral referee. Because in a democracy, no one should hold power without someone watching. And without fixing this, if we only keep demanding the resignation of Ganesh Kumar, we will only see one good Instagram trend and no change at all.

And once they fix the leadership, everything else can be implemented very very strictly so that India's elections can be conducted in a free and fair manner. So the root cause of the problem is the top leadership according to critics and then everything else is a procedural flaw that can be fixed very very quickly. This is the story of the protest that is happening right now. Now you tell me guys what do you think is the solution. Do you think resignation of Ganeshm Kummar will change anything or do you think the system itself needs to change? Now you let me know what you think in the comments. That's all from my side for today guys. If you learned something valable, please make sure to the like button to support our work and for more such insightful business and political case studies, please subscribe to our channel. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you in the next one. Bye-bye.

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