SIR Is ECI Telling PM, 'Sir, We Will Do Whatever You Want' : Kapil Sibal
Referring to the mass deletions after the SIR, Sibal said that the whole process is polluted.
Criticising the Election Commission of India's decision to conduct the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal on Saturday said his sister's name was deleted from the electoral rolls. Likewise, judges and foreign diplomats have found themselves in the deleted list, Sibal added.He stated that mass deletions have taken place, but very few have filled out the form for inclusion of their names because they fear they will be persecuted.
He was answering a question from the audience at a talk organised by the All India Lawyers Union in Kochi on 'Horse-Trade and Democracy'. The member asked whether it is pragmatic to visualise a fight for a defection-free India as a part of a larger struggle for political equality, which is also a fight against the SIR process, which, he said, has destroyed the concept of fair elections.
Responding to this, Sibal: "First of all, what does SIR stand for? Sir is said to whom? The Prime Minister of India. That is what SIR is: 'SIR, we will do whatever you want'. We know what the ground reality is. We know mass deletions are taking place. The whole process is inconsistent with the practice of the Election Commission itself. Never since 1950, anybody had to fill a form. So a school teacher, who is a BLO[Booth level officer], writes against the voters list 'D' doubtful, and that voter can't vote."
He added that the BLO's qualifying someone as a doubtful voter neither has any basis nor is the voter informed why he has been categorised as a doubtful voter.
"You have had people in the foreign services who are doubtful voters, you have judges whose names are not in the list, you have ordinary people, people in the army, and my own sister's name is not in the list. There are so many people whose names are not on the list. They will now have to fill out the form. Given the kind of social inequalities in India, people don't dare to fill the form because they think they will be persecuted. In many cases, mass deletions of particular communities are done, so where do you go? There are no quick processes that will resolve this issue. Each of them can't come to the Supreme Court and say decide our matter, they don't have the wherewithal. The whole process is polluted."
Several petitions were filed challenging the constitutional validity of the ECI's power to conduct SIR, but the Supreme Court this year in May held the exercise to be constitutional.
The video of the event can be watched here.
Also from the event - Kapil Sibal Questions Supreme Court's Delay In Deciding 'Merger' Issue Under 10th Schedule, Says It Impacts Future Of Democracy