SIR by ECI is clandestine attempt by BJP to prepare National Register of Citizens, claims activist Shiv Sundar

“The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India (ECI) is against the spirit of the Constitution, and has no support in existing laws,” claimed activist and writer Shiv Sundar in Vijayapura on February 11.

“As per the Constitution and laws like Representation of People’s Act, the Election Commission of India has no power to verify the citizenship status of people. It is a judicial process that should be decided by a tribunal. However, the ECI’s SIR is doing exactly that. What is baffling is that, till recently, ECI was claiming it was fixing errors in the electoral rolls. But now, it has admitted before the Supreme Court that it is verifying citizenship through SIR,’’ he said at a workshop on SIR, organised by the May Sahitya Mela, Dalit Vidyarthi Parishat and Ladai publications.

“Till now, the ECI had maintained that the SIR was intended for electoral roll revision, that included rectifying errors, removing names of dead and displaced voters, and adding new voters. But now, the ECI’s lawyers have admitted before the Supreme Court that they are verifying citizenship status of voters. This is in violation of judgments in some past cases where SC stated that citizenship verification is the duty of special tribunals, and not the ECI,” he said.

“It is in the light of these false claims and disinformation, we say that in the name of SIR, the Union Government is registering FIRs against all citizens,” he said.

“SIR is a tool for the government to question our citizenship and ask us to prove our citizenship. It is hiding behind a few documents to suspect all of us of being aliens, and insists that we prove our Indian citizenship. We have a strong suspicion that SIR is only a facade for the real intentions of the government, which is to prepare a National Register of Citizens.

“The Indian Constitution is an obstacle to the Fascist forces that are trying to turn the country into a Brahmin-Hindu corporatist state. Our Constitution is the biggest barrier protecting secular, liberal principles. That is why, the Fascist forces have hatched a conspiracy to subvert the Constitution.

“Already, there has been an attempt to take away the employment rights of the poor and turn them into living corpses. Now, there is a conspiracy to take away the right to citizenship by taking away the possible votes that the BJP will not get. This is a big ploy to destroy democracy itself. With this new process, citizens will not be killed, but their citizenship will be killed. This is a war being waged on the indigenous people, SC/ST, OBCs, women, rural poor and the migrant workers.

“Earlier, when the BJP government tried to implement NRC directly, they faced strong opposition. But now, it is implementing NRC indirectly through the SIR. Some BJP leaders claimed that SIR is aimed at removing foreigners from voter lists. But in Bihar, where 65 lakh people were excluded from the voter list, it only two foreigners were in the voter list.

“If the SIR is carried out in all the States, an estimated 25 crore Indians will be deprived of citizenship.

“It seems that the only solution is a mass movement of the people, without political affiliation. We all need to unite and begin a people’s movement on the model of the freedom movement, and reverse this conspiracy.”

He claimed that ECI officers were issuing notices to voters to prove their citizenship based on ‘flimsy reasons’ like children and mother having an age gap of less than 15 years, grandmother and grandchildren having an age gap of 40 years, parents having more than six children, proving the citizenship of parents and grandparents, proving paternity, and producing documents, like passport and government employment certificates, that are hard to get for poor people.

ECI officers in some States, like Karnataka, are not following SC judgments that have said Aadhaar card can be considered proof of citizenship.

“Karnataka’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the Congress does not view SIR as a political issue. That is unfortunate,” he said.

Anil Hosmani, S.M. Patil Ganihara, M.C. Mulla, Bhagavan Reddy, Rajashekar Yadahalli, Surekha Rajput, Prerana Koli, Srinath Poojari, and Yusuf Newara were among the participants at the workshop on SIR.