Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a resolution against the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s move to carry out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list in the state and urged the poll body to conduct the revision of voters’ list in a transparent manner.
The Congress-led UDF Opposition, which had already expressed their strong reservations against the SIR, backed the resolution in the House moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
In the resolution, the CM conveyed the concerns of the House about the “hasty move” by the ECI to implement the SIR and suspected “ill-motive” behind their action.
There are widespread concerns that the Election Commission’s move to conduct SIR is a “backdoor” attempt to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC), he pointed out.
The recent SIR process in Bihar confirms such concerns, he alleged,
adding that it reflects “politics of exclusion.”
Alleging that the SIR implemented in Bihar witnessed “illogical exclusions” of people from the voters’ list, Vijayan said there is a suspicion across the country whether the same pattern is being pursued on a national basis.
In the resolution, the CM questioned the attempts being made to implement the SIR in poll-bound Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal while the constitutional validity of the Bihar SIR process is under consideration by the Supreme Court.
It cannot be viewed as an innocent move, the Left veteran noted.
There are widespread fear that the attempt by the Election Commission to implement the SIR, that requires long-term preparation and consultation, in a hasty manner is to sabotage democracy, he said.
It casts a shadow of suspicion over the Commission, he added.
“The local body elections in Kerala are due to be held soon. The assembly elections will be held immediately after that. In this situation, it is ill-intentioned to conduct the SIR in a hurry,” he said.
Prior to this, a thorough revision of the voter list was carried out in Kerala in 2002. It is “unscientific” that the present revision is to be conducted based on 2002, he said.
The SIR’s requirement that those born after 1987 can vote only if they provide their father’s or mother’s citizenship certificate is a decision that undermines the country’s adult franchise, he noted.
It is also stipulated that those born after 2003 can cast their vote only if they submit the citizenship documents of their father and mother, he said.