On Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, while celebrating his revolutionary and emancipatory legacy, it is painful to note that his passionate advocacy for universal adult suffrage – ‘one person, one vote’ – and his challenging vision of achieving the goal of ‘one person, one value’, as described by him in his book Annihilation of Caste as the “soul of democracy”, is now being trampled upon with impunity on account of the mass-scale deletion of voters in West Bengal.This is being done through the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter lists by the Election Commission (EC) under the leadership of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and under the supervision of the Supreme Court.Already, the names of 27 lakh voters in West Bengal have been removed from the electoral rolls including on the grounds of so-called logical discrepancies and they have been disenfranchised although without declaring them ineligible to vote. The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant provided no relief to them while adjudicating some of their pleas for justice and for casting their votes.If the sacrosanct principle of ‘one person, one vote’ that remains central to universal adult suffrage cannot be ensured by preparing an electoral roll of all voters in spite of the concerted efforts of the EC and the Supreme Court, then these two key institutions of governance are subverting Ambedkar’s vision of establishing a society anchored in one person, one value.Ambedkar’s evidenceOver 107 years back, on January 27, 1919, while giving evidence before the Southborough Committee on Franchise, Ambedkar said: “The chief significance of suffrage or a political right consists in a chance for active and direct participation in the regulation of the terms upon which associated life shall be sustained.”Ambedkar very sensitively said before the Southborough Committee that “it would be better to pitch the franchise so low as to educate into political life as many untouchables as possible.”Because there was no universal adult franchise then in 1919, he argued for pitching franchise low so that underprivileged people could get a chance to be enrolled as voters and an inclusive voter list could be prepared.It is tragic that such an empowering vision of Ambedkar’s representing universal adult franchise is being demolished in 2026 because of the SIR, which the EC has ruthlessly framed to exclude voters from electoral rolls by asking citizens to prove their citizenship.Ambedkar’s apprehensionsIt is well known that Ambedkar played a historic role as chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly. While moving the article concerning the establishment of an independent Election Commission, Ambedkar famously said on June 15, 1949 that franchise is “a most fundamental thing in a democracy” and no eligible person should be excluded from the electoral rolls due to “the prejudice of a local government, or the whim of an officer”.The prejudice and whim of Gyanesh Kumar and his team in the EC implementing the SIR under the supervision of Supreme Court is depriving lakhs of voters of their constitutional right to vote.Ambedkar very candidly said in the Constituent Assembly that the issue of safeguarding the independence and impartiality of the EC from the interference of the government by preventing it from appointing unworthy persons as election commissioners caused, in his words, the “greatest headache” to the Drafting Committee and the Constituent Assembly.He confessed that in the provisions in the Constitution concerning appointments of chief election commissioners and election commissioners, there was nothing to prevent the government from appointing “either a fool or a knave or a person who is likely to be under the thumb of the executive”.The way Gyanesh Kumar is functioning proves Ambedkar’s point that he has come “under the thumb of the executive”. It is also proved by the manner in which the Modi regime is supporting the SIR that has resulted in the disenfranchisement of lakhs of voters.The fact that the EC has warned a particular party, the Trinamool Congress, ignoring its main political rival the BJP and all other parties in Bengal that they must participate in the elections without any violence clearly testified to the partisan conduct of the EC. This is in total contravention of Ambedkar’s vision.In its 2023 judgement in Anoop Baranwal vs Union of India the Supreme Court invoked Ambedkar’s fears and, therefore, outlined the meaning of the independence of those appointed as chief election commissioner and election commissioners so that they would not remain servile to the powers that be. The court stated:“A person, who is weak kneed before the powers that be, cannot be appointed as an Election Commissioner. A person, who is in a state of obligation or feels indebted to the one who appointed him, fails the nation and can have no place in the conduct of elections, forming the very foundation of the democracy … Upholding the constitutional values, which are, in fact, a part of the Basic Structure, and which includes, democracy, the Rule of Law, the Right to Equality, secularism and the purity of elections otherwise, would, indeed, proclaim the presence of independence.”It is important to uphold that vision of Ambedkar to reclaim universal adult franchise to save the Constitution.S.N. Sahu served as officer on special duty to former President K.R. Narayanan.