New Delhi, Oct 13 The Congress on Tuesday termed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) “illegal and unconstitutional” and demanded that the exercise be frozen and the names of all legitimate voters restored to the electoral roll.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh described the SIR as a “Method Of Disenfranchising Indians”.
Referring to the categories of Absent, Shifted, Deceased, and Duplicate (ASDD) electors in the context of the SIR, Ramesh said the term was being repeatedly used to defend what he called an illegal and unconstitutional exercise.
“ASDD sounds like a medical disorder, but this term is constantly being used to defend the illegal and unconstitutional SIR. What does it mean? The first D refers to the Dead, who account for around 20% of the deletions. The second D refers to Duplicates, who make up about 8% of the deletions.
“That means that A (Absent) and S (Shifted) plus others amount to over 10 Crore legitimate voters who have been removed from the electoral roll,” Ramesh said.
He also shared an explainer published in a leading news daily, saying it highlighted “how the design of the current SIR is a Method Of Disenfranchising Indians”.
“Unlike past SIR exercises, it excludes voters who have shifted, places the burden of proof on the voter, relies excessively on flawed software and enables abuse of Form 7 deletions,” Ramesh alleged.
“The SIR process must be frozen, and all legitimate voters must be restored to the electoral roll,” the Congress general secretary said.
Ramesh’s remarks come amid a raging row after The Indian Express reported that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders mostly related to the SIR process.
The EC has said that differing views and observations are a part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.
(PTI News)
