Kamal Haasan Demands Machine-Readable Electoral Rolls, Slams Rahul Gandhi's Detention

Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) today, raising what he called "grave questions" about the integrity of the country's electoral rolls. In a strongly worded letter to the people of India, the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder asked why the ECI refused to publish rolls in machine-readable formats that allow independent verification and why it demanded a written oath from Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi when the evidence he cited came from the poll body's records itself.

The Rajya Sabha MP's statement comes amid the ongoing controversy about bogus voters in the Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka.

Last week, Rahul Gandhi alleged the assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Parliamentary Constituency had more than 1,00,000 fake votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Mr Gandhi accused the BJP of benefiting from duplicate entries, fake and invalid addresses, bulk voters at single addresses, invalid photos, and misuse of Form 6 - allegations the BJP has dismissed as baseless and politically motivated.

The ECI's insistence on complaints under oath and its reluctance to probe the issue have drawn criticism from legal experts and opposition leaders, who warn the episode has caused a major dent in the poll body's credibility.

Citing suspicious additions to rolls in Karnataka and Maharashtra and mass deletions in Bihar's Special Intensive Revision exercise, Mr Haasan questioned whether "addition sometimes resembles subtraction."

He demanded that the ECI rise to the standards set by former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan, "who was impartial, fearless and above partisan politics," and permit independent audits so that "people see the truth rather than be told to take comfort in authority's word."

Mr Haasan also condemned the detention of Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc MPs while they were marching from Parliament to the ECI headquarters in Delhi to demand answers on alleged voter roll manipulation. "Detaining the people's elected voices for peacefully demanding answers for the people's rights is an assault on democracy itself. To arrest people's representatives for seeking transparency is to arrest democracy," Haasan wrote, warning that such actions "cannot stand in a free republic."

Framing the issue as a national cause beyond party lines, Mr Haasan urged all political parties, including those in the NDA, to unite for transparency. "Defend the vote, and you defend the republic," he said, calling on citizens to take the demand for reform "from village to town, from town to city, to every corner of India."

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi dismissed Mr Gandhi's claims as baseless and accused him of demeaning constitutional institutions.

With many independent agencies exposing large-scale irregularities, building on the issue raised by Rahul Gandhi, the issue has turned into a huge embarrassment for the poll panel.