India, April 7 -- The outcome of the adjudication process of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in West Bengal - 45% of the 6 million voters subjected to the process were found ineligible - raises several questions. The most pertinent one concerns the disproportionate number of Muslims who lost their vote - a Constitutionally-granted universal privilege that infused India's democracy with rare inclusiveness (few democracies allowed universal franchise from their inception).

The first phase of SIR, carried out across several states - it will be extended to more eventually - was mostly about removing discrepancies in a very old, and clunky, database. The HT newsroom's data journalists found no correlation to suggest...