One of the most empowering provisions of the Indian Constitution is universal adult suffrage. It grants every adult citizen the right to vote, regardless of income, caste, religion, gender or education. This was a revolutionary departure from colonial rule, where only taxpayers or landowners were enfranchised. The poor, long excluded from power, embraced the right to vote with unmatched enthusiasm in independent India’s first general election in 1952—and every election since. For them, the ballot was not just a paper—it was dignity, voice, and power. This hard-won right is now under threat in Bihar, where a so-called “special intensive revision” of the electoral rolls is underway. If allowed to proceed as planned, it could........

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