The Election Commission’s decision to extend the deadline for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union Territories is a tacit admission that the exercise has been less than ideal. For weeks, opposition parties have argued that the schedule was impossibly crammed. The one-week extension concedes that the objection had merit. The question now is whether an extra week is enough to complete what is nothing short of a gargantuan national task. The numbers alone are staggering. Revising and verifying over 500 million entries on electoral rolls cannot be done in a hurry without compromising accuracy. The Commission insists that the SIR has been proceeding uninterruptedly and that the revised........

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