Rahul Gandhi demands answers as ECI Commissioners flag “unauthorised” change
Staff Reporter NEW DELHI
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has put the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the spot over the controversial change to the online Form 6, demanding to know who ordered Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to make the alteration and who signed off on it.
In a post on X, Gandhi asked: “Who at the ECI ordered Tata Consultancy Services to make that change? Who at TCS signed off on it? And were they pressured into doing it?”
Gandhi’s questions come amid records showing that ECI Commissioners themselves raised objections to the change. He has demanded clarity on the complete chain of authorisation,Which official at the ECI instructed TCS to modify the online form? Who at TCS approved the change? And was the technology giant pressured into implementing it?
The controversy centres on the addition of an SIR-related declaration to the online Form 6, used by citizens seeking inclusion in electoral rolls. While the ECI has maintained that the statutory Form 6 was not altered and that an additional declaration was added to the online process, Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu reportedly recorded objections, with Sandhu describing the change as “unauthorised and illegal.”
That immediately raises a crucial question, if the change was unauthorised, who authorised the software modification?
And if TCS implemented it on instructions from the poll panel, where is the written instruction, who issued it, who approved it and who signed off on the deployment?
The ECI has not publicly identified the official or officials responsible for ordering the change. Nor has a public TCS approval trail emerged identifying the person who authorised its implementation.
The issue, Gandhi’s intervention suggests, is therefore no longer merely about a technical alteration to an online form. It is about who exercised the authority to change an electoral-registration process—and whether the required safeguards were followed.
Show the paper trail. Name the officials. Reveal the authorisation. Identify the TCS sign-off.