Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday accused the Modi government of facing “an unprecedented wave of anger and outrage for its complete and utter failures of Governance” and alleged that the Centre was resorting to manipulation of electoral rolls to skew the balance in its favour.
“There are two things to keep in mind,” Ramesh said in a statement. “First, the Modi government is facing an unprecedented wave of anger and outrage for its complete and utter failures in governance. Second, unable to face the electorate in a fair contest it has now opted to manipulate the lists of who can and cannot vote to skew the balance in its favour.”
He claimed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise was being used for this purpose. “Broadly speaking, this is what the SIR is for. It may have legal sanction but look at how it has been implemented. The story is the same in Bengal or Bihar. Voters are selectively deleted en masse and then made to face an appeals process that is arbitrary and ultimately meaningless,” he said.
Ramesh further said that Congress disagreed with the Supreme Court’s finding on the legality of the process, while adding that the party respected the verdict. “The Supreme Court has given a finding on law. We can respectfully disagree with the verdict,” he said.
He alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had rushed the SIR process “without justification for the rush” and that the “obvious and running theme was to delete first, ask questions later.” Ramesh said the haste was so “egregious and brazen” that the Supreme Court had to intervene and impose safeguards. “Was it not this very Supreme Court that directed the ECI to publish lists of deleted voters they wished to keep hidden, that made them publish reasons for deletion which they should have done in the first place, and that mandated Aadhar be accepted when ECI tried to refuse,” he asked.
Ramesh further said that the process was “rife with infirmities and based on mala fide.” He said, “Legal sanction may confer prima facie legitimacy but it cannot cure malice in implementation.”