Amid protests against the Election Commission (EC)’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, a 10-member delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs met Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi Friday, and alleged that he has “blood on his hands”. In an interview with The Indian Express, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale, who was part of the delegation, speaks on a range of issues related to the SIR and its implementation. Excerpts:
The TMC claims that West Bengal is being singled out through the SIR exercise. The same exercise is being undertaken by the EC in altogether 12 states and UTs. How is Bengal being singled out?
When the SIR exercise was first announced in Bihar, the EC had laid out the reasons for the SIR. They said that it is a clean-up of the voters list – removal of dead voters… That is fine. But the ruling party (BJP) and the Prime Minister have been saying that SIR will remove infiltrators. Now, if you see Indian states with international borders, West Bengal is one. Then, there is Assam, and six Northeast states. When the PM and Union Home Minister talk of infiltrators, they talk of Rohingyas, who come from Myanmar. But the SIR is not being conducted in a single state with a border with Myanmar.
But the EC says the SIR is being conducted mainly in poll-bound states?
Assam is a bordering state that goes to polls at the same time as Bengal. But in Assam, there is no intensive revision. There is only a summary revision happening… Where is it in the rules that only poll-bound states will have an SIR? If poll-bound states are to have an SIR, then why didn’t Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi have it before the elections. Our question is: Why is the EC suddenly interested only in states where elections are due?
Some Opposition parties have argued in the Supreme Court that the EC doesn’t have the jurisdiction to conduct a nationwide SIR. What is your take?
Conducting any kind of revision of electoral rolls is within the purview of the EC. This is not the first time the EC is doing an SIR. We are not questioning the EC conducting an SIR, we are questioning the methodology. There is no law that says the SIR has to be done only in poll-bound states, within a period of 60 days. We are questioning these aspects.
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As the Bihar SIR was announced, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had said the SIR is “National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the back door”. Do you think the SIR is a citizenship test?
To make it clear, we have no objection with the SIR. In the electoral rolls, the EC says they will remove four kinds of voters: dead voters, duplicate voters, voters who have shifted, and fourth is those who are not citizens of India.
Now, under the law, the EC doesn’t have the power to determine citizenship. That comes under the purview of the Home Ministry… Any deletion has to be done on an objection. The EC doesn’t have power to go door-to-door and ask for documents proving citizenship. That is a power the EC has given itself… Every time Bengal is concerned, a narrative is built on citizenship. There is a maligning of anyone who speaks Bangla. This government really has a problem with Bengali-speakers because the BJP doesn’t win in Bengal. The idea is to strip Bengalis of their citizenship.
Bihar was the first state where the SIR was done. The EC said the Opposition RJD and Congress didn’t file claims and objections after deletions. Is the TMC going to take a different approach?
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What the EC says and what the other Opposition parties have done, I can’t comment on it. Our leaders – Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee – have said we will not accept it (SIR) if even one genuine voter is deleted. We will be objecting and fighting. But the larger picture is that when the EC comes and says no one has filed objections, then how is the case going on in courts?
The case in the Supreme Court is different to the SIR objections and claims.
If you see the forms for the objections, then it is signed by an individual, not a group… That individual can be of any political party. In Bihar, if 10 people have filed objections, has the EC gone and checked if they are members of a party?
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has said the government could consider a discussion on the issue in the House in the Winter Session if it is not narrowed down to the SIR exercise. What would be the Opposition’s stance?
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We have a suggestion – a discussion on “strengthening elections in the mother of democracy”. You keep that, and we are happy with the discussion. The Opposition parties had conveyed this to the government (in the Monsoon Session) too. And these are the Prime Minister’s words.