New Delhi, 05 October—Defending the indefensible, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party today said the Supreme Court issuing notices to the EC and Centre on pleas related to the poll panel was proof that institutions were functioning independently and there was no atmosphere of “fear and dictatorship”.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, “The country is moving in a very democratic way,” adding that approaching the Supreme Court through a PIL, holding a hearing and issuing notice to the other party were part of the standard democratic and judicial process.
The controversy over the contentious nationwide rollout of the SIR largely centres on two applications — Form 6 and Form 7, one used to add new voters, and the other allows registered voters to object to someone’s inclusion or to request that a name be removed.
Muslim voters in several states, particularly Karnataka and Bengal, followed by Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu & Gujarat, where the minority community has been disproportionately affected.
Congress MP Dr Syed Naseer Hussain alleged that a BJP-linked booth-level agent used Form 7 to seek deletion of 7,561 electors in Ballari, most of them Muslims, calling it an attempt to disenfranchise Muslim voters and manipulate electoral rolls in favour of the BJP.
“Why is the BJP using Form-7 to target thousands of Muslim voters?” Naseer said.
Karnataka chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, where the SIR is undergoing now, had also flagged bulk Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters and sought a criminal investigation into the matter.
Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge defended cases against those accused of submitting false Form 7 applications, calling it a criminal offence punishable with up to one year in jail and a fine.
He said that BJP workers were behind thousands of such applications and called it a “centralised criminal conspiracy” against certain sections of society.
Kharge also questioned how they obtained pre-printed forms and whether EC officials were involved.
The Indian Express had reported on September 25 that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders on the SIR of electoral rolls that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.Under fire over objections raised by two of its commissioners, the EC asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and that all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures
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