India's Election Commission website unavailable for some NRIs
The Election Commission of India (ECI) website, https://eci.gov.in/, has become inaccessible for users residing outside India, leaving non-resident Indians (NRIs) confused and frustrated. The timing of this outage coincides with the ECI's compliance with Supreme Court directives to upload information regarding Electoral Bonds onto its platform.
Despite this significant update, Indian expatriates living in various countries, including the UAE, Canada, the US, the UK, and Saudi Arabia, reported difficulties accessing the site. Many NRIs, eager to review the newly released data, expressed disappointment and bewilderment at their inability to connect to the ECI's server. One anonymous Indian expat shared their intrigue at the site's unavailability.
N Khan, a resident of Dubai, echoed these sentiments, revealing her unsuccessful attempts to access the site despite multiple efforts. Similarly, AA from Saudi Arabia stated that even with the use of a VPN, the website remained inaccessible.
Experts speculate that the issue may not be a mere technical glitch but a deliberate action. Obaidullah Kazmi, the Founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Dubai-based cybersecurity company Credo, explained that geolocation blocking techniques might have been employed to restrict access to the website based on the user's location.
Kazmi emphasized that such measures could be implemented to adhere to local regulations, control the dissemination of sensitive information, and safeguard national security interests.
This development marks the first instance where the names of corporate political donors and their beneficiaries under a contentious funding mechanism have been publicly disclosed. With India's national elections scheduled to commence on April 19, scrutiny surrounding political financing has intensified.
The preceding month saw India's highest court invalidate the government's electoral bond scheme, which facilitated anonymous political contributions, deeming it unconstitutional. The court's ruling underscored that the scheme infringed upon the right to information as outlined in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
By: Sahiba Suri
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