‘If there is a targeted attempt to eliminate the voice of some citizens, that would be a monstrous

‘If there is a targeted attempt to eliminate the voice of some citizens, that would be a monstrous development’ Nobel laureate Amartya Sen says undertaking a special intensive revision of the electoral rolls as in Bihar with little time and serious possibilities of significant bias can have the effect of making the election far less truthful than continuing to use the existing rolls; he says it is extremely important that the Election Commission does not generate reason for suspicion by the choices it makes The Hindu Bureau INTERVIEW Amartya Sen Economist Amartya Sen, in an email interview, says even with an unbiased Election Commission, there can be serious errors in a quickly produced electoral roll, particularly because of the absence of documentary evidence that many citizens, especially the poor and the deprived, are able to present. Do you support the Election Commission’s attempt to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls across the country? Getting the rolls right can indeed be a good exercise if it is done correctly. However, if in a hasty attempt to remove errors from the existing list, more errors are introduced, the result can be terrible. Volunteering to undertake this effort with little time and serious possibilities of significant bias can have the effect of making the election far less truthful than continuing to use the existing rolls. Many people have also questioned the neutrality of the Election Commission, and that is an issue that has to be appropriately assessed. But even with an unbiased Election Commission, there can be serious errors in a quickly produced electoral roll, particularly because of the absence of documentary evidence that many citizens, especially the poor and the deprived, are able to present. Class bias is a big danger here. Is there a danger of disenfranchisement of large groups of people in the process of revising the rolls within a very short time, in a hurry? If there is a targeted attempt to eliminate the voice of some citizens, especially from the deprived parts of the nation, that would be a monstrous development. This must be totally avoided, and the Election Commission must take into account the reasons for suspicion that many fair-minded critics have found. It is extremely important that the Election Commission does not generate reason for suspicion by its choices, and that the Supreme Court plays its supervisory role actively and fairly. Indeed, the Supreme Court is ultimately the institution most responsible for making sure that the citizens’ rights are not trifled with. As citizens of India, we all have to rely on the constitutional role of the Supreme Court and we are all dependent on its active protection of justice. This is a hugely important concern of citizens today, but there is, in addition, also the question of how the future would judge the Supreme Court today in the light of what they choose to do given the information they have. There is, in fact, a big tomorrow. What do you think of the alleged atrocities against poor migrant Bengali workers in BJP-ruled States? There is a general point here that has to be addressed and also a special concern. The general point is that India is a country for all its citizens, and no part of the nation — whether Bengali or Tamil or Maharashtrian — should be discriminated against in any region of the country. Ill-treatment of Bengali workers elsewhere is very bad indeed, but so is the ill-treatment of any other group of migrant workers. That is the big general point, but a special concern, added to this, is the tendency of some political movements within India to portray many Bengali Indians as if they were immigrants from Bangladesh. There have, unfortunately, been many attempts at treating Bengalis in general as Bangladeshis. Especially because of the anti-Muslim programmes of some political groups in India, Bengali Indians have often had to suffer from greater discrimination than other Indians. The level of ignorant confusion shown by many powerful officers in Delhi is truly catastrophic when they see the Bengali language (born between the tenth and the eleventh centuries – through the great poetry of Charyapad) as a “Bangladeshi language”. The BJP seems to be working hard in West Bengal to promote Hindutva in preparation of the State elections next year. Will they succeed? Bengal has had a long history of Hindu-Muslim cordiality as well as cooperative work shared by different communities. A political party that tries to generate communal narrow-mindedness might temporarily experience partial success through its divisive propaganda, but it will not be easy to turn Bengal into a communal bastion of hatred. Divisive efforts of this kind could sometimes have short-lived success, but Bengali culture and society are ultimately resistant to generating an invented internal enmity. The illusion of political gain, if any, from cultivated discord will turn out to be ephemeral.