New Delhi, July 5 -- The Congress on Sunday alleged that the Election Commission is functioning as an "arm of the BJP" and claimed that the SIR was part of the "Modi-Shah strategy" to "manufacture a majority" by manipulating the electoral rolls.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asserted that nobody is against the process of electoral roll revision but what is being opposed is the manner in which the Election Commission (EC) is "managing, coordinating, and manipulating" the entire process.
The EC has all along maintained that the poll roll revision was aimed at removing dead, duplicate, shifted and absent voters as well as foreign nationals.
Referring to the letter written by Opposition parties to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Ramesh said 24 parties, including the DMK and AAP, highlighted their concerns about the way SIR is "devastating" the electoral democracy and the blatantly partisan role of the EC which is "acting, behaving, functioning and operating like department of the BJP", taking "its orders" from Home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We are appealing to the conscience of the chief justice of India. The Supreme Court has a very vital role to play in ensuring that the Election Commission functions in a transparent, accountable, non-partisan manner that is one of our demands," Ramesh told news agency.
The Supreme Court has a very vital role in ensuring that the SIR process does not lead to mass disenfranchisement, mass deletions of people who are basically Indian citizens, he said.
Who can argue with the proposition that only Indians must vote in India, he said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.