No freedom to vote

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
30 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 6,000-odd prisoners in the state have to remain mute witnesses to the electoral process. However, this time they could heave a sigh of relief that a famous legislator is one among them.
The one-year rigorous imprisonment in the Idamalayar corruption case has played spoilsport for Kerala Congress(B) leader and former Minister R Balakrishna Pillai’s desire to contest the polls. He may also be deprived of a chance to cast his vote. The only ray of hope before Pillai is the outcome of a curative petition that he had filed before the Supreme Court against the judgment in the Idamalayar case.
“At present, we do not have any rules that allow a prisoner to cast his vote,” says Additional DGP (prisons) Alexander Jacob. However, it is a sigh of relief for the prisoners that the new prison rules that have been mooted by the Prisons Department provide for voting rights for the prisoners. But the draft of the new rules is only under the consideration of the government.
At present, there are 6,384 prisoners in the state, of whom 2,700 are convicts. The remaining include remand prisoners, undertrials and those kept in preventive detention under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act (Goonda Act).
Though there is no provision for prisoners to exercise their franchise, in case if a prisoner is on parole on any other grounds during the polling day, he may be able to cast his vote, provided his name is there in the electoral roll.
However, the Election Commission will be strictly scrutinising all parole applications. Hence the chance of getting parole on flimsy grounds is rare, say sources.
Over these years, discussions had taken place at various platforms across the nation regarding the denial of voting rights to prisoners. However, it still remains a distant dream in a country like India which boasts of being the largest democracy.