In this episode, we speak with journalist Ayushi Kar. We discuss the special intensive revision process in West Bengal, where 9 million voters were deleted from the voter rolls. We delve into the Election Commission of India’s changing goalposts, the message this exercise has sent to India’s Muslims, and what this exercise says about the future of Indian elections. Ayushi brings her extensive experience as one of the first reporters to go to West Bengal to report on this process to provide her insights on this complicated development and how it is affecting West Bengal’s voters just days before legislative assembly elections in the state. 

Reading List

1. Reporters’ Collective work on elections and SIR: “The Electoral Roll Project” - Ayushi Kar, Nitin Sethi, Harshita Manwani, Vishnu Narayan, Gayatri Sapru

2. Documentaries and short episodes on Bengal elections and election fraud by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta