Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 20: Senior Congress leader and AICC General Secretary, G.A. Mir today said the issue of alleged manipulation in electoral rolls poses a “serious threat” to India’s democracy and must be investigated thoroughly.
“This is not about one party alone. The entire country should be concerned. There is a need to take cognizance of the matter, because the way it is being done is a direct threat to democracy,” Mir told reporters here. Click here to watch video
He said that earlier there were only complaints of “vote chori” without concrete evidence, often attributed to malfunctioning EVMs or other systemic flaws.
“But in recent times, following ground research, a different mechanism has come to light-wherever the Central Government thought deletion of votes would benefit them, deletions were carried out, and wherever addition suited them, additions were made,” he alleged.
Mir referred to a recent press conference by Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, where Gandhi claimed that in one Assembly Constituency over 6,000 votes had been deleted without the applicants’ knowledge. “It was shown that deletions were recorded as being sought by applicants, but in many cases there were no contact details or addresses of such applicants,” Mir said.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), he noted, has maintained that votes cannot be deleted without the intervention of the voter. “If the ECI says that, then Congress demands an investigation. If neither the ECI nor the voter is aware, then which agency in between is managing this setup?” he asked.
Mir added that the deletions disproportionately affect the poor, minorities, and members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
“When they are struck off the voter list, they also lose access to ration cards and other welfare benefits. This is the major concern,” he said. Taking aim at the ruling BJP, Mir said, “Rahul Gandhi is raising questions over the ECI. Why is the BJP feeling the pain?”
Instead of reacting “defensively”, Mir said they should be tightening the ECI’s functioning and urging course correction in this regard.
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