Shashi Tharoor targets Election Commission over ECINet row: ‘Rescind this disastrous software and undo the harm…’

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over its ECINet system, calling the issue “extremely serious” after a report raised questions over how electoral-roll corrections were handled during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Goa.

The controversy centres on 97 voters who, according to an investigation by The Indian Express, were examined by local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and found eligible for inclusion. However, their names did not make it to Goa’s final electoral roll because the officials were reportedly unable to reverse earlier decisions through the digital system.

Reacting to the report, Tharoor called for the software to be rescinded and the alleged harm to affected citizens to be corrected.

“This is extremely serious and involves depriving Indian citizens of their constitutional rights, as well as withholding essential humanitarian benefits, from dialysis treatments to transplants,” Tharoor wrote on X.

He went on to say that an apology was owed to affected citizens and called resignation a “minimal demand”, adding that “rescinding this disastrous software and undoing the harm it has caused is now indispensable.”

Why the case of 97 Goa voters has triggered concern

The dispute goes beyond the number of people involved.

According to The Indian Express, the Goa Chief Electoral Officer’s office contacted the Election Commission repeatedly as the deadline for publication of the final roll approached. The office reportedly sent eight emails in seven days, seeking the ability to reverse earlier decisions involving the 97 electors.

The report said the local EROs had heard the cases, examined the documents and concluded that the earlier decisions concerning these electors needed to be reversed.

But there was a problem: the officials reportedly did not have access to the required rollback facility in the software. That control rested with the Election Commission’s central IT setup in Delhi, according to the report.

The final electoral roll was published on February 21, and The Indian Express reported that all 97 names remained absent when it checked the roll as recently as September 20.

Losing a place on Goa’s voter roll can have consequences beyond elections

The controversy has taken on an additional dimension because inclusion on the electoral roll in Goa is linked to eligibility for certain state benefits.

According to the report, the state’s Mediclaim Scheme, which provides financial support for specified super-speciality treatments unavailable in government hospitals, is available to voters of the state.

That includes treatment such as dialysis, angioplasty, open-heart surgery, transplants, chemotherapy and cochlear implants.

This was the aspect Tharoor highlighted while attacking the Election Commission, arguing that exclusion could have consequences extending beyond a citizen’s ability to cast a vote.

ECINet and SIR under scrutiny

The wider controversy involves the Election Commission’s digital infrastructure used for electoral-roll management.

ERONET, which now sits within the broader ECINet ecosystem, processes electoral-roll information and has come under scrutiny over questions about system access and the degree of control available to state and ground-level electoral officials.

A separate Indian Express investigation reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections to multiple decisions involving electoral processes and IT systems. Among the issues reported were changes to Form 6, centralisation of system controls and access available to electoral officials.

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However, Election Commission officials have disputed suggestions of institutional disagreement over the SIR exercise, telling Hindustan Times that decisions taken by the Commission, including SIR, had the approval of all three Election Commissioners.

That response is significant because it presents a different account from reports describing objections by Sandhu and Joshi over specific administrative and technological decisions.

Tharoor demands accountability

For Shashi Tharoor, the Goa episode has become a question of accountability as much as technology.

His intervention adds to mounting political scrutiny of the Election Commission over how India’s electoral rolls are managed and, crucially, who has the authority to correct them when ground-level electoral officers reach a different conclusion from what has already been entered into the system.

The central question raised by the Goa case is therefore straightforward but consequential: if an authorised electoral officer determines that a citizen is eligible, should a software limitation be capable of preventing that decision from being reflected in the final voter list?

As political reactions intensify, attention is now likely to remain on the Election Commission, the operation of ECINet and what steps, if any, are taken regarding the 97 affected electors in Goa.