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The Right to Vote in a Democracy

India's Election Commission is reviewing the entire voter list in a process called the Special Intensive Revision, and it has sparked protests in several cities. Here's how India's elections are run, who gets to vote, and why so many people are speaking up.

The Right to Vote in a Democracy

In a democracy, people choose their own leaders by voting - but only citizens who meet certain rules are allowed to vote, and deciding who meets those rules can become one of the most debated questions in a country. In India in 2026, a massive review of the voter list, called the Special Intensive Revision, has triggered protests in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

What is a democracy, and how does voting fit in?

A democracy is a system of government in which people choose their own leaders by voting for them. In India, this happens at several levels at once: voters elect representatives for their local council, for their state government, and for the national government in Delhi.

Hear it from Takaro: the whole concept of a democracy is the fact that people vote for their leaders.

Who is eligible to vote in India?

To vote in an Indian election, a person generally needs to meet five basic conditions: be at least 18 years old, be an Indian citizen, be of sound mind and not declared mentally unfit by a court, live in the constituency where they want to vote, and not be disqualified from voting by law, for example because of certain criminal convictions.

Key fact: If someone meets all five of these conditions, they are normally allowed to vote - but proving that you meet them, especially the citizenship requirement, is exactly what has caused controversy in 2026.

Who runs India's elections?

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is the independent body responsible for running every election in the country. It sets the election schedule, maintains the electoral roll (the official list of eligible voters), and monitors whether political parties are campaigning fairly. The Commission is meant to be completely independent of the government.

The ECI is led by a Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), supported by two additional Election Commissioners. As of this episode, the Chief Election Commissioner is Gyanesh Kumar, who has held the role since February 2025. The CEC is chosen by a three-member panel made up of the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition, and is then formally appointed by the President.

What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and why did it happen?

The Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, is a nationwide review of India's electoral roll - the list of everyone eligible to vote. With 1.4 billion people in the country, the Election Commission wanted to clean up years of accumulated errors: voters who had died, people registered twice, and citizens who were missing from the list entirely.

Did you know? The SIR found roughly 10 million duplicate entries on India's electoral rolls - a reminder of just how large and complex the job of running the world's biggest democracy really is.

Why did the SIR process lead to protests?

As the Election Commission reviewed the rolls, a new rule caused problems: in many cases, a voter could only stay on the list if they, or their parents, had already been registered in 2002. Without that paperwork, people had to prove their citizenship all over again - a difficult task for elderly voters, migrants, or anyone who simply doesn't have old documents on hand.

Hear it from Takaro: We're the largest democracy in the world, so going through that electoral roll and cleaning it up is a huge exercise.

The controversy deepened when two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, said they had raised concerns about the SIR process 14 times over 10 months and were ignored. That raised a bigger question: if only one of three commissioners is really making the decisions, is the process still fair?

How does protest fit into a democracy?

The questions around the SIR led to protests in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, with demonstrators demanding the Chief Election Commissioner's resignation. Around 33,000 police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to manage the crowds, and in several places the protests turned tense.

Everything is connected: Prime Minister Modi has called India 'the mother of all democracies.' Episodes like this one raise a real question for the world's largest democracy: what is the right way for citizens to challenge a process they believe is unfair, and how should a government respond?

Key vocabulary

Democracy - A system of government in which people choose their leaders by voting.
Election Commission of India (ECI) - The independent body responsible for running elections at every level in India.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) - The senior-most of India's three Election Commissioners, chosen by a panel of the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition.
Electoral roll - The official list of everyone who is eligible to vote.
Special Intensive Revision (SIR) - A nationwide review of the electoral roll to remove errors, duplicates, and outdated entries, and add missing eligible voters.
Constituency - The specific area a voter lives in, which determines where and for whom they can vote.
Eligible voter - Someone who meets the legal requirements to vote: being 18 or older, a citizen, of sound mind, a resident of their constituency, and not disqualified by law.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Election Commission of India (ECI)?

It is the independent body responsible for running every election in India, from setting the schedule to maintaining the voter list and checking that parties campaign fairly.

Who is eligible to vote in India?

Generally, anyone who is at least 18 years old, an Indian citizen, of sound mind, a resident of their constituency, and not disqualified by law.

What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?

A nationwide review of India's electoral roll meant to remove duplicate, outdated, or incorrect entries and add missing eligible voters.

Why are people protesting the SIR process?

Many feel the new citizenship-proof requirement unfairly removed eligible voters who lacked old paperwork, and two of the three Election Commissioners said their concerns about the process were ignored.

Who is India's Chief Election Commissioner?

Gyanesh Kumar, who has held the role since February 2025.

Related episodes

Peaceful Protests and How They Work - how protests are organised and policed in a democracy, and what rules govern them.
The Cockroach Janata Party - the youth movement behind several recent protest waves in India.
Delimitation and the Women's Bill - another look at how representation and voting districts are decided in India.

What You'll Learn

1. India's Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, has faced protests demanding his resignation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
2. To vote in India, a person must be at least 18, an Indian citizen, mentally sound, a resident of their constituency, and not legally disqualified.
3. The SIR process found roughly 10 million duplicate entries on India's electoral rolls, which cover 1.4 billion people.
4. Two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, said they raised concerns about the SIR process 14 times over 10 months and were ignored.
5. During the 2026 protests, 33,000 police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to manage crowds across cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

Key Vocabulary

- Democracy - A system of government in which people choose their leaders by voting.
- Election Commission of India (ECI) - The independent body responsible for running elections at every level in India.
- Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) - The senior-most of India's three Election Commissioners, chosen by a panel of the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition.
- Electoral roll - The official list of everyone who is eligible to vote.
- Special Intensive Revision (SIR) - A nationwide review of the electoral roll to remove errors, duplicates, and outdated entries, and add missing eligible voters.
- Constituency - The specific area a voter lives in, which determines where and for whom they can vote.
- Eligible voter - Someone who meets the legal requirements to vote: being 18 or older, a citizen, of sound mind, a resident of their constituency, and not disqualified by law.

Classroom Lesson Plan

Discussion questions, a hands-on classroom activity, and grade-band standards alignment — grades 4–9.

Discussion questions

A - Proving who you are
Educator prompt: If you had to prove you were a citizen and eligible to vote, but had no paperwork, how would you want the system to handle that fairly?

B - Who decides the rules?
Educator prompt: Only three people, the Election Commissioners, made the decisions about the SIR process. Is it fair for such an important process to rest with so few people? What would you change?

C - Peaceful protest
Educator prompt: Protests over the SIR process turned violent in some cities. Where should the line be drawn between a citizen's right to protest and keeping public order?

D - Cleaning the list vs. protecting voters
Educator prompt: Removing duplicate or outdated names makes the electoral roll more accurate, but can also accidentally remove eligible voters. How would you balance accuracy with fairness if you were in charge?

[00:00:00] Kiran: Mics, camera, action. Today we're gonna be talking about civics and the subject of voting and, you know, the whole concept of democracy
[00:00:15] Debkanya: Yep, how a democracy is run. You've been following the news, if you've been listening to people around you, over the last two weeks or so, there have been a lot of protests once again happening across certain parts of the country, specifically happening in Delhi, happening in Mumbai. I know there were protests that happened in Bangalore as well, and people gathered. What are they protesting? What are they demanding? This time around, the protesters are demanding the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner. Why is a big question, and we're going to get into that in a little bit of detail. But yes, it'll give you a good understanding of how a democracy is run and how people get to vote.
[00:01:00] Kiran: Yeah. And I think this is fundamental to understanding, like you said, how a democracy runs. The whole concept of a democracy is the fact that people vote for their leaders. And in India it happens at multiple levels: at the council level, then at the state level, and then at the national level as well, when we are simplifying things. The Election Commission of India is basically the one body or organization whose only job is to run the country's elections at all these different layers. So it sets the election schedule, it maintains the electoral roll, which is the list of people who are eligible to vote, and it also looks at campaign rules - are political parties campaigning the right way or not? So it monitors and runs that entire process, and it's supposed to be completely independent from the government. It should not in any way be entwined with the government at all.
[00:02:07] Debkanya: And you would think, okay, the Election Commission is basically responsible for defining the rules and laws we have to follow so that democracy is run well, and they decide who gets to vote and when. So the question you would ask is, who can vote in our country? Who is eligible to vote in our country? There are some basic rules we all follow: one, you need to be an adult, which means you need to be 18 years old and above. You need to be an Indian citizen. You need to be mentally sound, which means mentally completely fit and not declared unfit by any court. You need to be a resident of the place that you're voting at, so of that constituency. And you should not be disqualified by the law - you should not have done anything that disqualifies you from voting. So if you follow these basic things, you should be allowed to vote. But actually there's more to it than that, and that's actually what's created this whole uproar in the country right now. But let's step back a little bit. Let's talk about the chief election commissioner. How does he get selected?
[00:03:17] Kiran: Yeah. The chief election commissioner is part of a three-person group of election commissioners that run and manage the entire organization nationwide, and the chief election commissioner is the chief amongst those three. He is Gyanesh Kumar, who is the chief election commissioner. He's been the chief election commissioner since February 2025. He's consistently been a civil servant, which means he's always worked in public service. He was chosen by a three-member panel, comprising the prime minister, a union cabinet minister, and the leader of the opposition. These three people come together, a decision is made, whether it is majority wins or whatever, and the president formally appoints this chief election commissioner.
[00:04:16] Debkanya: So once the chief election commissioner and two other additional election commissioners are chosen, they sit down and make all the rules and laws of how voting happens in the country and who gets to vote. Now, they decided to take on a very big project, which has not happened in India ever. This is called the SIR, which is the Special Intensive Revision. What does this mean? Basically, the electoral roll that Kiran mentioned, the long list of all the people eligible to vote - they decided to review it, because after all these years there must be many voters who are probably not alive anymore, voters who might have registered twice, mistakes in the roll, and people missing from the roll because they never registered or were not eligible at some point. So let's go over this entire list. Now, India is a country of 1.4 billion.
[00:05:17] Kiran: Huge. It's a tough job, huh? Yeah.
[00:05:21] Debkanya: It's a very tough job. We're the largest democracy in the world, so going through that electoral roll and cleaning it up is a huge exercise, and that's what the Election Commission decided to do. No small task. The problem arises when people started realizing, 'Hey, I'm supposed to be an eligible voter, but on the new list that's now coming out, my name is not on it.' And people started throwing a fit, as they should, because if you're eligible to vote, your name should be on the roll. But it's a difficult task - there was lots of documentation that people needed to provide. For example, if your parents have been voting since, say, 2002, and their names are on the electoral roll, then you're automatically eligible to vote. But in some cases people needed to provide more paperwork. In many cases, people's names just went off the rolls and they couldn't figure out why - they had to go and petition, go for a hearing, and prove again that they're citizens. So people were upset, as they should be, and they wanted to make sure their names are on the rolls. And of course this is an ongoing process - the list isn't final, and people have been given ample opportunity to contest and say their name should be included.
[00:06:37] Kiran: Yeah. And I think the biggest problem, or the biggest statement from the opposition leaders and even the Cockroach Janta Party, is this: is this being used as political power to take out people who may not vote favorably one way or the other? Again, it is a very complicated process, for 1.4 billion people, and it's extremely tough because it's also important to constantly clean up the electoral roll.
[00:07:14] Debkanya: There were 10 million duplicates.
[00:07:16] Kiran: Oh, wow, that's crazy. And so to clear all of this up is an important thing the Election Commission should do on a regular basis. But I think the main concern was this one section that was added: 'Prove your citizenship, and only if you were in the 2002 voter list, or your parents were, only then are you eligible.' I think that was the biggest point of contention.
[00:07:44] Debkanya: Yeah, it's significant because the burden of proof, as they were saying, is with the voter - with the people. You have to find a way to prove that you are a citizen and an eligible voter, and this is really hard. Imagine trying to find paperwork if you're an elderly person or a migrant - there are people in the country who don't even have an extra pair of clothes. Are they really going to carry paperwork around to prove they're a citizen who should be allowed to vote? So it becomes really hard for certain groups of people to prove this, and people felt there has to be a better way of doing this. So that was the SIR - a process which is controversial in itself. Then came another big controversy, related to an Indian Express news story: remember we said three people, the chief election commissioner and two others, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, who were also supposed to support the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar. The two others came out and said that they were not consulted when these SIR rules were made, and were not consulted on a lot of decisions being made.
[00:08:54] Kiran: And in fact, not just not consulted - they actually raised concerns about this SIR process itself apparently 14 times over the last 10 months, and they were ignored, is what the report says.
[00:09:08] Debkanya: Yeah, and that automatically got everyone wondering what's really going on, because there are only three people who make these decisions - if it's really taken by only one, there's a problem there. People started digging deeper, and that is what led to the rise of these protests. It all started in Delhi. The Cockroach Janta Party, which previously was protesting about the education system, decided to take this on as something they want to fight for. In addition, a lot of opposition parties - Gandhi, the leader of the opposition from the Congress Party, and other parties - have also banded together and said, 'We are going to oppose this. We want the CEC', the chief election commissioner, 'to go.'
[00:09:50] Kiran: Yeah, and we've done a couple of episodes and conversations about things like this in the past, about the Cockroach Janta Party and how it came about, about the delimitation bill, which is also kind of related. There are a lot of these things that have been happening over the last couple of years, which is why there's a lot of conversation about this, and I think the Cockroach Janta Party have got the backing of the youth to really get their voice heard. This is something not too many people assumed would happen, and it's pretty significant because fundamentally we're also talking about our basic civics and constitutional rights. So a good exercise is for you to go back and look at how a democracy runs and how the voting system in India actually works. You can have multiple parties - one party at the national level, maybe another at the state level, maybe another in your own constituency. It's a very complicated structure, which is why it's a good exercise to go scour through your textbooks or research to understand how all of this works.
[00:11:16] Debkanya: Also, I think it's worthy of debate and discussion: what would you do, for example, if you were running the country and wanted to make sure all the voters voting were indeed eligible and the right people - that people weren't cheating, voting in someone else's name, or voting twice or thrice? If you wanted a clean list, what would you do? And then if, for example, you were faced with somebody saying, 'Hey, it's unfair, my name is not on the list, I don't have paperwork, I'm a citizen, how can you ask me these questions?' - how would you deal with it? What would the process look like if you were in charge, to make it fair for everybody? These are not easy answers, but maybe you and your friends can figure it out if you sit down and discuss it.
[00:12:02] Kiran: Yeah, and I think it's important to understand the basis of all of these protests that are happening. Yes, there are protests happening, and there are people out there going out and really doing a lot to have their voice heard. But it's important to understand where it's coming from, make your own decision, and have conversations with your educators, your parents, your friends, and try and debate, like Debbie said, what makes sense and what doesn't.
[00:12:32] Debkanya: Yeah, and the other thing to think about: protest is part of our DNA, how we got independence from the British - it's very much part of who we are as Indians. So in this case as well, protests which were meant to be peaceful got a little violent, quite violent in a lot of cases, with a lot of clashing with the police, for example - there were 33,000 police and paramilitary personnel deployed during these protests to control the crowds, and there was a lot of back and forth. So again, should this happen in these cases? In a country like India, which is a democracy, should protests of this scale be allowed? And what should the government be doing? What's the right way to address it? Our Prime Minister himself, Modi, said that India is the mother of all democracies, which is true.
[00:13:30] Kiran: It is the largest.
[00:13:31] Debkanya: So how does the largest democracy then deal with a citizen protest like this? These are all very good questions worth figuring out together.
[00:13:42] Kiran: So, as always, good amount of homework for you to do if you really want to get into this topic - have discussions, have debates, do some research online. We'll point you to some good resources as well. Go to takaropodcast.com and you will get a whole bunch of resources over there for each one of our conversations. Make sure you go in, visit the website, and get thoughts and questions that you can ask your friends and your parents, and have those conversations. We have completely revamped the website as well, so make sure you pay it a visit - we'd be very happy if you did. We are now going to round this off with our final section, which is the quiz. Debbie, what's today's quiz question?
[00:14:41] Debkanya: Today's quiz question requires a little bit of research - you'll need to look into this a little bit, but it's fairly straightforward. During the SIR process - remember we spoke about the SIR, which is the Special Intensive Revision -
[00:14:53] Kiran: Revision, yeah.
[00:14:54] Debkanya: - we are going over the voter roll to make sure all the voters are legitimate. Who are the officers who are actually going and doing this exercise? This exercise is actually happening door to door, physically, by people. What are these officers called? I'm going to give you three options: option one, voter list checkers, VLCs. Option two, roll monitors, ERMs. Option three, booth level officers, or BLOs.
[00:15:28] Kiran: So as always, head to our website or ask your parents to send us an Instagram message, and with the right answer, your name, your age, and which city you're sending this answer from, a lucky winner will get a lucky surprise gift. In fact, last week we had asked a question, Debbie. The question was, which three sports did India win double golds in? What was the answer, Debbie?
[00:16:07] Debkanya: The answer was very straightforward - we'd actually mentioned it in the episode as well. India won golds in both men's and women's events in cricket, in hockey,
[00:16:18] Kiran: And in Kabaddi.
[00:16:21] Debkanya: And in kabaddi. Thank you.
[00:16:24] Kiran: And we actually have a repeat winner this time. We have Agastya, who's come in with the right answer. Agastya, you have actually won the surprise gift of a Needo, and a Needo is going to be sent to you very, very soon. Ask your parents to send me your address.
[00:16:45] Debkanya: My kids are going to be very jealous about this.
[00:16:48] Kiran: Well, make sure your kids participate in this week's quiz, and next week would be yet another surprise gift if they are the ones chosen. So as always, see you next week, bye-bye.
[00:17:07] Debkanya: Goodbye.