Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal called the Special Intensive Revision exercise of the Election Commission “unconstitutional” and called out the EC for being a “puppet” to the Modi government. Sibal also claimed that each election commissioner surpasses the previous one in his "alignment with this government".
PTI reported that Sibal said the EC doesn't have the jurisdiction to decide issues of citizenship.
Sibal commenting on the opposition's attack on the EC for the SIR said, "EC has always been a puppet in the hands of the government for a long time, ever since this government came to power. The conduct of the Election Commission, the less said about it, the better.”
On the SIR process itself, Sibal said, “This is, according to me, a completely unconstitutional process that is being carried on. The Commission doesn't have the jurisdiction to decide issues of citizenship and that also by a block level officer.”
“I have been saying that they (BJP) adopt all possible means to somehow win elections. In fact, this whole particular process of a special intensive revision is a process to ensure majoritarian governments for all times to come,” he added.
Sibal said he has always stated that he doesn't believe in the independence of the EC at all because the institution has not reflected that independence that was expected of them, reported PTI.
"Whatever the court has said will be taken into account hopefully by the EC itself. So that we don't have this controversy moving forward," he said.
Sibal, according to PTI reports, called the SIR exercise “unconstitutional”, and raised the concern that deleting names of marginalised groups from electoral rolls could fundamentally alter the democratic process. “This is the intent because if you delete the names of the poor people, the marginalised, the adivasis, you will ensure that the majoritarian party always wins. So this is yet another way of ensuring that, and this is very worrisome,” he said.
Opposition Speaks Out
Noting that the Monsoon session of Parliament is coming up, Sibal said the issue of SIR is perhaps more significant than any other issue. The SIR is expected to be a hot topic of discussion in the upcoming session.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned the validity and transparency of the ongoing review.
In a post on X, the party asked: “Is the Election Commission, in collusion with the BJP, murdering democracy in Bihar? The voter forms being submitted and uploaded in Bihar lack a lot of information. The Election Commission claims that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is being conducted under the law, but there is no such thing happening at the ground level. Employees are submitting forms that are incomplete and lack information.”
The Telegraph reported that the remarks came amid the EC’s statement that a “large number of people” from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar have been found during house-to-house verification visits in Bihar. The officials claimed that names of illegal migrants would not be included in the final electoral roll to be published on September 30, after further inquiries from August 1.
The Congress also raised concerns about the SIR. Charan Singh Sapra described the EC’s move as what he described as a pattern.
Sapra said, “The way ECI has worked in the last four-five elections, there have been doubts that the government and the ECI are hand in glove. We saw the last few elections, and now the SIR exercise in Bihar. We asked questions, they did not answer. We asked for voter lists of past elections, they are not giving. Is it an ECI, or a dictator. We are going to people's court now. If they will do it in Assam, we will oppose,” reported The Telegraph.
