New Delhi, 21 September—Targeting country’s electoral body, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge today asked whether the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi makes a distinction between “VIP voters” and ordinary electors.
Kharge’s remarks came a day after the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, issued a press release in which it stressed that the issuance of notices to “VIP/marked electors” during the ongoing Delhi SIR does “not” mean that an elector’s name would be deleted from the roll.
The note said notices were being sent to electors whose names could not be linked to the electoral roll from the last intensive revision or whose records showed “logical discrepancies”. It said no deletion could take place without giving the elector an opportunity to be heard and passing a “proper speaking and appealable order”.
Controversy relates to Delhi’s draft SIR rolls which includes former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Election Commissioner S.S. Sandhu, former Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi and CBI director Praveen Sood
Taking advantage of the press note’s wording, Kharge questioned in his X post in Hindi whether the SIR process was treating some voters differently from others.
“The Election Commission today issued an official press release describing “VIP/marked electors.”
“Is there now some Special Category of voters in India’s Universal Adult Franchise—VIP voters and ordinary voters?
“Isn’t this a violation of the constitutional principle of One Person, One Vote, One Value? Has the VIP vote become more valuable now?” Kharge threw a pointed poser at the EC, ending his criticism with: “Press Release for VIPs, Silence for crores of ordinary voters!”
“What started as SIR from Bihar has now knocked on Delhi’s door, and perhaps now the powers-that-be are realizing why the Congress Party has been calling the entire process Flawed from day one!” he claimed.
“SIR is not just a tool used by the BJP for vote theft and dismantling democracy—it’s a Flawed Process that has turned into a Frankenstein Monster, now trapping its own people!!,” Kharge alleged.
Kharge also pointed out that in Bengal, 93 per cent of decided appeals against deletions had succeeded, resulting in 1,13,943 people being reinstated in the electoral roll.
The Election Commission has recently submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court that has laid bare the slow progress on around 37 lakh appeals against SIR linked deletions and additions in Bengal.
“In Bengal, among those whose names were deleted to prevent them from voting, 93% of the decided cases so far have won their appeals—meaning 1,13,943 people will be reinstated in the voter list! Wow!
“On what basis was their voting right stripped away?” Kharge asked in his post.
On Sunday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the SIR as a “Shah Instigated Removal” of voters and said the exercise placed an excessive burden on citizens to establish their eligibility.
Ramesh later used another expansion of SIR — “Method Of Disenfranchising Indians” — in a post on Monday referring to the appearance of the late economist Bibek Debroy’s name among voters issued notices over discrepancies.
According to the Delhi CEO, around 97 lakh voters feature in the draft roll, while 33.13 lakh have been identified for notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms; more than 31.63 lakh notices had been served.
While The Election Commission has said an SIR notice is not an “existential crisis” and the Supreme Court has repeatedly said deletion from electoral rolls in SIR does not determine citizenship, common people have suffered because of the SIR, ranging from PhD applications in IITs being held up to Bengali-speaking labourers being detained in other states.
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