New Delhi, Oct. 26 -- The current controversy over the voter rolls revision - called Special Intensive Revision (SIR) - and the protests in India raises precisely the question of how healthy our democracy is. The dispute is not merely an administrative matter. Rather, it concerns the relationship between citizenship, political representation, institutional independence, and the state's accountability to citizens. At stake is the very basis of democracy itself when the credibility of the electoral process and citizens' rights to question are met with the iron hands of the powerful state.

Beyond the Ballot Box

Electoral democracy requires that the procedures governing democratic electoral participation are transparent and open to public s...