Congress alleges SIR conspiracy by PM Modi, Amit Shah and CEC Gyanesh Kumar to deprive Indians of voting rights

The Congress on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of conspiring to deprive large sections of Indians of their constitutional right to vote through the Special Intensive Revision SIR of electoral rollsThe Opposition party reiterated its demands for Kumarrsquos removal suspension of the SIR exercise and a revamp of the ECINET portal alleging that the electoral roll revision was being used to delete legitimate votersrsquo namesCongress general secretary incharge of communications Jairam Ramesh raised the issue in a post on X sharing a media report that said the number of suspected foreign nationals identified in six states where the SIR had been completed or was under way was small compared with the electorateCongress questions number of foreign nationals identifiedRamesh referred to Shahrsquos stated objective for the SIR exercise which he said was to detect delete and deport infiltrators and ldquopurifyrdquo electoral rollsQuestioning the outcome Ramesh said that only around 1600 foreign nationals had been identified and removed from the electoral rolls across Karnataka Jharkhand Meghalaya Kerala Goa and Mizoram despite nearly 10 crore people undergoing the exercise in these statesThe Congress leader argued that the figures raised questions about the justification for the exercise and its impact on eligible votersHe also claimed that the Election Commission of India ECI had not asked the other 20 states and Union Territories to collect similar data and accused the Union Home Minister of making misleading claims about the exerciseKarnataka reports 716 foreign nationals among deleted namesCiting Karnataka as an example Ramesh said 997 lakh names had been deleted from the statersquos electoral rolls while 716 foreign nationals had been identified including 545 from NepalThis only proves what has been evident all along that SIR was always intended for ensuring that very large sections of Indians have their constitutional right to vote snatched away Ramesh allegedHe claimed that the exercise was planned by Modi and Shah and implemented by Kumar through various means including ECINET the Election Commissionrsquos digital platform for electionrelated servicesGyanesh Kumar has to go SIR has to be suspended ECINET has to be revamped Ramesh said reiterating the Congressrsquos demandsCongress renews demand for CECrsquos removalThe latest allegations follow the Congressrsquos criticism of the Election Commissionrsquos affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on the SIR exercise On Tuesday the party described the affidavit as deceptive deceitful and duplicitous claiming that it was damaging the poll bodyrsquos credibilityTaking a swipe at the Election Commission Ramesh had said Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive And when we have done it for a while it comes out in a crooked styleHis remarks followed the Election Commissionrsquos defence of the SIR exercise before the Supreme Court The poll body maintained that the revision was authorised by law and that the relevant orders had been approved unanimously by all three members of the CommissionElection Commission defends SIR processIn its 248page response to a petition challenging the Chief Election Commissioner and decisions taken by the poll body the Election Commission rejected allegations that statutory Form 6 used for voter registration had been amendedThe Commission said no changes had been made to the statutory form It also maintained that its decisions carried legal sanction and followed established procedures The affidavit came amid reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on multiple occasions over decisions and orders many relating to the SIR process