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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, December 10, said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise is to purify and clean the voter list, adding that several such exercises were conducted during the Congress rule as well.
Responding to comments during electoral reform In the debate, Shah said, “The first SIR was done in 1952 when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister,” adding that from 1952 to 2004 no party opposed SIR as it is a “transparent voter list preparation process”.
The SIR is conducted to remove names from the voter list of those who have died and those who are foreign nationals, Shah further said, questioning whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to participate in elections held in India.
Taking a dig at the Congress party, Shah said, “The opposition is worried because the people of the country do not vote for them and the SIR will remove the names of illegal immigrants who support them.”
Shah said, Parliament cannot discuss SIR
Shah began his response by saying that Parliament cannot discuss the issue of SIR, arguing that the matter falls under the Election Commission, which he said is an independent body.
He said, “For two days we told the opposition that this should be discussed later, after two sessions. But they did not agree. We agreed… Why did we say no? There were two reasons for no. One, they wanted a discussion on SIR. I am very clear that SIR cannot be discussed in this House. SIR is the responsibility of the Election Commission.”
He said, “India’s EC and CEC do not work under the government. If discussions happen and questions are raised, who will answer it? When they said they were ready to discuss electoral reforms, we immediately agreed…”
Shah made list of SIR under Congress
The Home Minister pointed to the SIR practice under Congress rule, and said no party opposed the decision as it is important for “clean and transparent elections”.
Shah said, “Our electoral history began in 1952, when the first significant amendment of the SIR was made in 1952. Who was the Prime Minister at that time? Jawaharlal Nehru, from the Congress Party. In 1957, the second amendment took place which was again under Nehru’s government.”
“The third amendment took place in 1961, once again under Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party. In 1965–66, another major amendment was made, within just two years. At that time, Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister, also from the Congress Party. In 1983–84, amendments took place during Indira Gandhi’s tenure. In 1987–89, amendments took place under Rajiv Gandhi. In 1992–93 and The amendments were conducted during the tenure of Narasimha Rao,” Shah said.
He said the amendment began in 2002-03 under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was completed in 2004 when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, also from the Congress.
Shah said, “After that, the next in-depth review is taking place under our government in 2025. Till 2004, no party opposed an in-depth scrutiny of the SIR, as this process is necessary to keep the elections clean and transparent.”
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