Human beings have a curious capacity for adaptation. We can get used to almost any reality. We learn to live with tragedy and brutality, absorb them into the routines of everyday life. Today, the United States unleashes its thuggery on yet another country. Our city’s pollution crosses the danger mark again. A few more children are killed in Gaza. Another lynching takes place in India.

Just another day, just another set of headlines. News of this kind unsettles us at first, but when it’s a tide, we get inured — and by the time the most horrifying news arrives, we are already numb.

Something very similar has happened with the SIR.

When the intensive revision of the voter list began in Bihar, it triggered an uproar. Newsrooms, courtrooms, drawing rooms — everyone was talking. The sudden deletion of 65 lakh names shook people. Then our attention shifted to the Bihar elections. Somehow, almost imperceptibly, the election results were also taken as proof that everything about the SIR must have been fine.

We didn’t even notice when the second round of SIR began. We barely registered when it was completed across 12 states and Union Territories, and when their draft lists were published. By the time the biggest blow was delivered, we were bored.

The publication of the draft SIR list in Uttar Pradesh has jolted us awake again. Before the SIR, the state had 15.44 crore voters; after the exercise, 12.56 crore remain.

In one fell swoop, 2.88 crore names have been struck off. Most countries in the world have fewer voters than the names deleted in Uttar Pradesh. Consider this too: as per the Election Commission of India........

© National Herald