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New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) Ground-level verification and updating of voters in poll-bound states has turned into a major controversy, with rumor mongers and echo chambers fueling the citizenship row, leading to panic and the tragic death of at least three people by suicide in West Bengal.
Leaders of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, have blamed the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the atmosphere of fear. He compared the process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to that of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). However, the ECI is not authorized to remove or include any citizen but will only determine the voting rights.
There is also scope for appeal in case of complaint.
However, Congress and the Left have also been questioning the intentions of the Election Commission regarding its timing and method and have been accusing it of colluding with the BJP. They continue to create tension by accusing the BJP of “playing politics” of fear, division and hatred.
TMC has threatened protests and legal action, saying it will create help desks and organize massive demonstrations if genuine voters are removed during SIR.
Incidentally, the Supreme Court is already hearing petitions on SIR, but it has not stopped the practice.
BJP leaders have strongly refuted the allegation that SIR is a “backdoor NRC” and have accused TMC of creating fear for political gains. Party spokesmen described the link to the suicides as a national administrative exercise as a fabrication and disputed what they called false or politicized claims.
However, some leaders of the state unit initially took an aggressive stance and claimed that the SIR would weed out several thousand fake voters in the state. Each of these posts is preferentially disseminated in sympathetic networks. For TMC supporters, the major remedy is harassment and intimidation; For BJP supporters, it is politics equivalent to nervousness; For undecided or alienated citizens, the noise is distracting rather than informative. The net effect is not debate, but radicalization of perception. Many citizens, especially elderly people or those who do not have adequate documentation, are vulnerable to repeated exposure to statelessness, suffering and anxiety and take extreme measures.
Citing such traumas, political echo chambers have tragically exaggerated the deaths to create more panic. According to media reports, family members of the victims themselves are sometimes divided on the real reason for the suicide.
In fact, Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been conducted eight times from 1951 to 2004, with the last exercise being conducted more than two decades ago in 2002–2004. Since then, there have been many changes to the voter list due to frequent migration, which may result in voters being registered in more than one place, names of the dead not being removed, or including the wrong name of someone who is not a citizen of India.
Article 326 of the Indian Constitution establishes that elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies shall be based on adult franchise. This means that the right to vote in these elections belongs to the elector, who must be a citizen of India… must be at least 18 years of age, and must not be disqualified by law. Nevertheless, many opposition parties target the civic aspect, where they claim that the SIR of the voter list is aimed at removing the names of voters who are not willing to support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Meanwhile, with the announcement of SIR rollout in West Bengal, there were reports of domestic helpers leaving their jobs in many parts of North 24 Parganas. The report quoted some families as saying that their domestic helpers have returned to Bangladesh. This raises questions about their sudden disappearance – was it fear of alleged persecution or actual identity?
–IANS
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