Kolkata: In a sharp response to Amit Shah’s speech in the Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien has argued that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being mishandled, turning a routine voter-list update into a source of fear and hardship for citizens. While acknowledging the importance of clean electoral rolls, he stressed that it is the execution that has caused chaos across several states.
“No one is against SIR as a concept. No one is against having clean electoral rolls,” O’Brien wrote, clarifying that the concept itself is not under question. Instead, he criticised what he called the government’s “haphazard implementation”, which has disproportionately affected daily-wage earners, farmers and rural households who were forced to queue for hours to authenticate documents. Responding directly to Amit Shah’s defence of SIR, O’Brien raised concerns about selective enforcement.
He pointed out that states like Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala faced intense scrutiny while other border states with similar demographic concerns were left untouched.
“Is SIR meant to protect the voter list or exclude on the basis of identity?” he asked, questioning the intent behind the exercise.
He also highlighted the human toll of the rushed process, referring to distress and reported deaths linked to verification pressures in Bengal. Development work in several districts, he noted, slowed down significantly as government officials were diverted to SIR duties.
O’Brien further questioned the lack of transparency around the technology being used, particularly the AI-driven system that flags supposed duplicate voters. He demanded clarity on who developed it and how errors are being addressed.
Emphasising that the SIR could have been a constructive exercise if handled responsibly, O’Brien concluded that the true problem lies not in the idea of SIR but in the way it is being carried out.