Rahul Gandhi asks who authorised Form 6 changes, whether TCS was pressured, tell me about this news in (https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/rahul-gandhi-asks-who-authorised-form-6-changes-whether-tcs-was-pressured/ar-AA2djvhV?ocid=BingNewsVerp)

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, raised serious concerns and directed questions at the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding controversial modifications made to the online Form 6, which is used for new voter registrations.

Here are the key details of the news:

Core Questions Raised by Rahul Gandhi

In a post on social media platform X, Rahul Gandhi questioned the decision-making and operational chain behind altering the voter enrolment form:

• Authorization of Changes: He stated that online Form 6 was altered illegally, noting that the Election Commission’s own Commissioners had recorded objections to the move.

• Role of TCS: He specifically asked who within the Election Commission instructed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)the technology service provider managing the softwareto implement the changes, who inside TCS signed off on the update, and whether the company was pressured into carrying it out.

Background to the Controversy

• The Additional Declaration: An extra declaration tied to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise was linked to the statutory Form 6 on the online ECINET portal and app. This required first-time applicants to provide details linking themselves, their parents, or their grandparents to previous electoral roll revisions before their applications could proceed.

• Internal Dissent within ECI: Reports revealed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally flagged objections to the change on record, noting that modifying or attaching mandatory extra declarations to a statutory form without proper statutory rule amendments was unauthorized.

• Rollback by the Commission: Following a full Commission meeting, the Election Commission withdrew the additional declaration in states where the SIR revision exercise had concluded, clarifying that for non-SIR periods, standard forms under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 would continue to be used.