Apropos the Editorial 'ECI's statement is an admission, time for accountability' (TGE, September 28, 2026). The Election Commission's latest clarification reads less like a defence and more like a quiet confession. When lakhs of genuine voters are quietly struck off the rolls and then told to re-register as first-timers, the burden of a bureaucratic mistake falls squarely on the citizen. Form 6 even forces them to declare a falsehood about their own voting history. That is not the remedy. That is erasure dressed up as reform. The deeper issue is accountability. Officials who enabled these deletions cannot simply be transferred or forgotten. If the machinery that conducts our elections can tilt outcomes through silence and paperwork, then every claim of fairness rings hollow. The Commission must publish who ordered what, restore deleted names without forcing fresh registration, and fix responsibility publicly. Democracy survives only when those who damage it are held to account, not merely advised to be careful next time.
K CHIDANAND KUMAR, Bengaluru
