Civil society groups staged protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise across Karnataka on Tuesday, April 15, demanding that the state government take a strong stand against the ‘illegal’ SIR.
The protests were staged in Koppal, Kalaburagi, Belagavi, Tumakuru, Bengaluru, Kodagu, Udupi, Mysuru, Raichur, Bidar, and Vijayanagara districts under the aegis of the My Vote, My Right campaign.
Other groups which participated in the protest included the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha, Slum Mahila Sanghatane, Domestic Workers’ Rights Union, PUCL, Udupi Jilla Alpasankhyatara Vedike, Udupi Jilla Muslim Okkuta, and Udupi District Catholic Sabha.
The deletion of many names from the electoral rolls after the SIR exercise was “striking at the very foundation of democratic participation,” a release by the campaign stated.
A group of 30 concerned citizens, lawyers and activists staged a protest outside the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. Protests were also held at Cheluvadipalya, Anandapuram, Janatha colony, Vinobha Nagar, KP Agrahara, Bilekahalli, Banashankari, Subhash Nagar, Jakkasandra, Somasundarapalya, Kadrenahalli and Chinnappa Gardens.
The groups demanded that the state government oppose and take a strong stand against the SIR, and also urged citizens to step forward and protest the SIR to protect the citizens’ right to vote. They also urge the Supreme Court to step in and reinstate the names of people who have been randomly deleted and to ensure their right to vote.
The groups argued that in West Bengal alone, over 27 lakh voters, previously mapped to the 2002 electoral list and in possession of valid documents, had been removed from the current list of electors.
“Investigations into these have revealed two deeply troubling patterns: Those deleted and placed ‘Under Adjudication’ are disproportionately Muslim. The number of voters so deleted are higher than the victory margins in the constituency, thus potentially affecting results,” the release said.
They cited the Maniyachak constituency, where the population comprises 50.2% Hindu and 49.4% Muslim voters. “However, out of all the voters who are placed ‘Under Adjudication’, 97.4% are Muslim and 2.3% are Hindu. In total, 91 lakh voters have been deleted in West Bengal since the SIR began, out of them 61 lakh of them being women,” they added.
In Uttar Pradesh, the largest electorate in India, over 2.04 crore names were removed. This reduced the electorate from 15.44 crore voters to 13.39 crore. In Tamil Nadu, 74 lakh names were deleted, bringing the electorate down to 5.67 crore from 6.41 crore.
This article was written by a student intern working with TNM.