Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday strongly criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its decision to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. He accused the poll body of attempting to carry out a backdoor National Register of Citizens (NRC) and claimed that the constitutional rights of voters were being infringed upon.
Ramesh questioned the timing and intent behind the move, especially since the matter of voter verification is currently pending before the Supreme Court. He alleged that the ECI was exceeding its mandate by trying to verify citizenship, a task outside its jurisdiction. “The constitutional rights of voters are being snatched. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. It is not the responsibility of the Election Commission to prove citizenship. Why is this exercise being conducted four to five months before the assembly elections? There is an atmosphere of fear in Bihar,” Ramesh stated.
Echoing similar concerns, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi also lashed out at the Election Commission on July 15, questioning its authority to determine citizenship. He too described the SIR process as a covert attempt to implement the NRC. “Who gave the ECI the power to determine whether someone is a citizen or not? Our party was the first to say that SIR is NRC through the back door,” Owaisi said while speaking to national media.
He also raised doubts over the effectiveness of the previous Special Intensive Revision conducted in Bihar in 2003, demanding data on the outcome of that exercise. Owaisi challenged the government to produce the names and numbers of foreign nationals identified at that time. “We demand the number of those Booth Level Officers (BLOs). We will ask our party members to meet them and ask where the people from Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are, whom they claim to have identified. The SIR was conducted in 2003 — how many foreign nationals were revealed then?” he questioned.
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Owaisi did not limit his criticism to the ECI and the ruling alliance. He also took aim at the INDIA bloc, ruling out any alliance with the grouping and accusing it of sidelining emerging leaders from marginalised communities. “One-sided love is not going to happen. The people of Bihar should understand that the accusations made against us were based on lies. They don’t want a leader of the poor and oppressed to rise to political leadership,” he said.
“They just want you to remain their slaves, to walk behind them with your head bowed,” Owaisi added, intensifying his criticism of the political establishment. The controversy around the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar has added political heat ahead of the assembly elections, with opposition parties accusing the ECI of undermining democratic rights and creating a climate of fear among voters.
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