Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 7 (IANS) Actor-activist Prakash Raj on Wednesday demanded the immediate scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the exercise posed a serious threat to the voting rights of citizens and amounted to an attempt to kill democracy.
Addressing the media in Thiruvananthapuram, Raj launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India and demanded that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign immediately.
He also sought legal accountability for all those involved in implementing the SIR process.
Raj alleged that the revision could deprive more than 13 crore people across the country of their constitutional right to vote and warned that it could create two categories of citizens, those who have voting rights and those who do not.
On the controversy over the SIR, actor Prakash Raj said, “Now we are realising the conspiracy and the agenda behind SIR. For that, we need to know a little about the history of the Election Commission of India and the electoral process in this country. When India attained freedom, it was a new country, and the Constitution was formed. If you remember, the Britishers had suggested that this was a new country with many poor and uneducated people and questioned whether everyone should be given the right to elect governments. They suggested that the right should be given to some higher-class or well-educated people. But the leaders of that time, whether Ambedkar, Nehru or others, said no. This country would give everyone the power to elect their representatives, who would represent their issues- whether they are farmers, Adivasis, Dalits or minorities…”
Raj said the right to vote was one of the fundamental principles on which democratic India was built and alleged that the present exercise was undermining that principle.
He appealed to people to come out on the streets to protect their voting rights and said further programmes of resistance would be organised at the local level.
He also said public tribunals would be held with people who had allegedly been affected by the revision process.
Raj’s intervention comes amid a growing controversy over the SIR exercise, with political parties and civil society groups raising concerns over the possible exclusion of genuine voters from electoral rolls.
He called upon citizens to remain vigilant and resist what he described as attempts to roll back their democratic rights.
–IANS
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