A citizens’ convention on Sunday denounced the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as an orchestrated campaign of exclusion to benefit the BJP and demanded the removal of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom speakers accused of overseeing the exercise.
Veteran lawyers, academics and politicians addressed the convention, organised by the Bharat Joro Abhiyan (Unite India Campaign) at Moulali Yuva Kendra to express solidarity with anti-government protests across the country.
Several speakers called for a more proactive role by the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan alleged that the election commission was forcing voters whose names had been deleted from the rolls to make false declarations through Form 6.
Bhushan said migrant workers and others who had moved from their original addresses were struck off the rolls because they could not fill in enumeration forms.
“The election commission said those who could not fill in the enumeration form would be automatically removed from the draft rolls. Now, the commission is asking them to fill in Form 6. But Form 6 is meant for new, first-time voters. It requires declaring that one has never voted before. The same form says that if the information is false, the person can be prosecuted and jailed for a year. So, basically, the commission is asking people to make a false declaration,” said Bhushan, who was detained by Delhi Police during Saturday’s protests.
“The election commission has arbitrary powers to include or remove names. An IT cell has been set up in Delhi and entrusted with this job. The cell is controlled by BJP members. So, the BJP is deciding whose names will remain on the rolls and whose will be deleted.
“The cloak is gradually coming off. Gyanesh Kumar conducted the SIR to benefit the BJP. Nationwide protests began when this link became clear,” Bhushan said.
Apoorvanand, a Delhi University teacher and political commentator, said the SIR had, for the first time, made the electoral process “exclusionary”.
“It has always been inclusive. The idea is to get more and more people to vote. This became exclusive for the first time,” he said.
He said it was now up to the people to reclaim their rights.
“The government has lost sleep. It is scared because it has realised that people have lost faith in institutions. This is an opportunity for all of us to remain on the streets until our rights are restored,” he said.
Apoorvanand also described as “unfortunate” the remarks attributed to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who was part of a bench that declined an urgent hearing on pending appeals in Bengal ahead of the October 6 bypolls.
“These are only by-elections, that’s all,” the CJI was quoted as saying.
Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the Congress’s Bengal unit SIR committee and a petitioner in the Supreme Court, said the exercise had left an indelible mark on Bengal’s election results.
“To claim that the special intensive revision had no impact whatsoever on the outcome is absolute nonsense. In fact, the data suggests that the SIR did have an impact on the majority secured in the election,” he said.
Bose called for the exercise to be scrapped and subjected to judicial review. He also said the possibility of a re-election should be examined and demanded the immediate restoration of approximately 22 lakh voters whose cases remain pending before tribunals.
“It is wrong to exclude people first and make them wait indefinitely for justice,” he said, warning that delays could repeatedly deprive eligible citizens of their voting rights.
Justice (retd) Abhay Thipsay, Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy and CPM leader and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya were among the other speakers.
Almost every speaker demanded Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, describing it as non-negotiable but insufficient on its own. They also called for fairness and transparency in the process of appointing a chief election commissioner.