India election revision sparks fear

INDIAN election officials have given voters in Bihar state just weeks to prove their citizenship, requiring documents few possess in a registration revamp set to be applied nationwide, triggering disenfranchisement fears.

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The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the revision of the voter rolls in June ahead of upcoming polls in the eastern state.

It said the exercise will later be replicated across the nation of 1.4 billion people.

According to the ECI, the “intensive revision” was needed in part to avoid the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants”.

Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.

Critics say the overhaul could render vast numbers of Indian citizens unable to vote.

“You are being asked to produce documents that very few people have,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, a prominent Muslim lawmaker.

“It will lead to mass disenfranchisement?

Opposition lawmakers say it will impact minorities the hardest, including Muslims and Dalit communities, those on the bottom rung of India’s rigid caste hierarchy.

All potential voters in Bihar will have to provide proof of citizenship by July 25.

Those registered in 2003, the last time scrutiny of the voter list took place in Bihar, can submit a copy of that.