Author: M. G. Devasahayam

“The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures” — The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. It is this universal suffrage that grants voting rights to all adult citizens, irrespective of their caste, creed or community. In India, it came into existence along with its Constitution in January 1950. Thus, when it is about the ‘right to vote’, India—the world’s largest democracy–is a…