This week on TV Newsance, the streets of Delhi and Mumbai were louder than any prime-time debate. The Cockroach Janta Party’s big contribution to the movement against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was “Gyanesh, it’s done bro.” Meanwhile, Delhi University’s women, out on the streets for women's safety, dropped rhymes that made the men’s slogans look like a draft. Poetry round: Women, 1. Boys, 0.  

So what lit the match? The Indian Express got hold of the Election Commission’s internal file notings, and they show that the other two commissioners were deeply uncomfortable with how the voter-roll revamp, or SIR, was being run. Two things from those notings remain unexplained:

➨ In West Bengal, 16 lakh appeals were filed against voters being added back to the rolls, and not even the commissioners knew who filed them. 

➨ In Goa, 97 eligible voters stayed off the list because the software in Delhi had no “add name” option, despite eight emails begging for one. Yes, the country of software engineers.

The government, meanwhile, is busy with the real threat: blocking cartoonists. But in all of this, the worst takes still came from the usual suspects: Godijeevis! They were like “Disagreements happen in every office, bro.” Sure they do, but we’re pretty sure office disagreements differ from a constitutional body like the Election Commission functioning undemocratically.

Please let us know in the comments what you think of the episode. 

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