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India’s Modi Gov’t Purged Millions of Voters Before Elections in “Direct Attack” on Democracy

2026-05-07 News & Politics
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Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-yt Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won big in state-level elections this week, with the Hindu nationalist BJP now controlling over 70% of the country. Leading opposition politician and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has refused to recognize the results as legitimate, accusing the Modi government of mass disenfranchisement. Ahead of elections, 9 million names were deleted from the rolls under a process called “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR). The process, conducted by India’s Election Commission, “vitiates and creates an electoral advantage by pitting Hindu voters against Muslim voters,” says political scientist Gilles Verniers. Rather than the advertised purge of deceased and duplicate voters, SIR appears to have primarily affected Muslims and other minorities. Nearly 3 million voters in West Bengal, where more than a quarter of the population is Muslim, were unable to cast their vote. From New Delhi, journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani says blatant election interference has destroyed Indians’ faith in democratic elections. “The general public does not think the elections are free and fair in India,” she explains. “So this is a sad day for democracy, for people who believe that not only today — but tomorrow’s — India should also be democratic.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe

Top Comments (10)

@kskumar-mg9iu 2026-05-07

He has converted democracy into 'deletocracy'.

215 34 replies
@nennymoan 2026-05-07

Thank you, we in India need eyes on this.

181 17 replies
@troubadour0663 2026-05-07

Watching Mamata di on Democracy Now is not something I would have ever dreamed.

163 14 replies
@KrishnaDasLessons 2026-05-07

Thank you for covering this.

97 4 replies
@navinraut5920 2026-05-08

Modi himself lost his seat in Varanasi, but the Election commission changed the results midway while counting. BJP has been rigging elections since 2019. Recent elections in Maharashtra and Haryana were also stolen by Modi.

22 4 replies
@Mark_aline 2026-05-08

Modi is ruling without winning any fair elections. Election Commission is fraud, Voting machines are changed while counting, they enter into the strong room and change the voting machines, CCTV cameras are switching off. They use army to do these kind of things, kerala Tamilnadu assam west Bengal Maharastra Bihar Everywhere They're removing the People who are voting for the opposition parties through SIR process.

15 1 replies
@gopaljha9540 2026-05-09

India has one most of the vibrant and active democracy. I am a very a common man and I have seen any political party going up and down If they do not live upto the expectation of public .

13 1 replies
@escapistreader3860 2026-05-08

Very well explained by Arfa. Thank you for covering this.

10 1 replies
@Border-LLine 2026-05-08

Hahahahaha meltdown 😂😂

7 4 replies
@Good.justice 2026-05-08

As if we did not see all this coming

6

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