The principle of allowing all Indians to vote in a general election has a sound basis in parliamentary democracy. Once accepted, only the modalities remain to be tackled, and this process is currently on at the prompting of the Supreme Court after recommendations to this effect were received from the Election Commission. The Central government had also accepted that non-resident Indians should be allowed to vote if they are away from their Indian base. There were some differences among political parties about the manner in which such voting should be allowed and the EC’s directions are the ones that are to be followed now; this makes perfect sense since they have sifted the protocols to be followed thoroughly.
Over 10 million NRIs will have their voting right established soon in a move that is to be welcomed. The fear that the demographics of some constituencies could change may be slightly exaggerated, although it is a fact that some indirect influences could come to bear on Indian elections as an NRI voter base could potentially be an influential segment capable of affecting media reporting and analysis at election time. This could, in turn, have a bearing on the thought processes among the electorate in the country. But so long as the election process is not vitiated by malpractice or manipulation, there is no reason for politicians or the election system to fear the NRI vote. Kerala is the state likely to have the most voters in this segment, which means its politicians would have to put in a little more effort.
The fact that 114 countries have accepted external voting makes it all the more incumbent on India, a model democracy in many ways, to enable a larger and more inclusive electorate. Excluding persons of Indian origin and Overseas Citizens of India on the premise that they have been away from India for too long, and that many of them are anyway citizens of other countries, is an acceptable argument.
A larger question does remain on how a very large migrant population, can be similarly enabled to vote. Of course, by the Representation of the People Act, any eligible Indian can vote in the constituency in which s/he is resident. The overriding logic should be that our system has worked well by and large and any tinkering would only be to make it even more inclusive. In a connected world, it is simpler to effect these changes in law to ensure everyone can vote. It does, however, stand to reason that since the sheer numbers of India are in some ways self-defeating, much work also needs to be done even to ensure the name of every eligible voter is actually on the rolls.
