Who is an Indian citizen? The question is as old as the Republic itself, and as fraught. For a democracy just 75 years old, born in the trauma of a bloody Partition, the boundaries of belonging have always been both legal and emotional. The latest dotted lines sprang up on June 24, 2025, when the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced its intent to launch a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to protect the “integrity of electoral rolls”. With Bihar voting in four months, the ECI declared the process would begin there first. While its objective was laudable, the timing and terms were instantly controversial. Especially its insistence on a paper trail that effectively entailed establishing citizenship first. The Opposition dubbed it a backdoor resurrection of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a project advocated b
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