New Delhi: The Congress has strongly criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) after it filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court defending the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The opposition party called the affidavit “deceptive, deceitful and duplicitous and extremely damaging—to itself,” and raised six main objections, ANI reported.
In a statement on Tuesday, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the ECI had changed its stand on the extra declaration linked to Form 6. He said the poll panel first claimed that the Supreme Court had upheld the new declaration, and later said it was separate and that Form 6 had not been changed. “But this is a deception—Form 6 could not be submitted online without filling this mandatory declaration,” he said.
He also said the ECI had stated on 26 September that the declaration was attached to Form 6, but was now calling it separate. “The ECI cannot cover up its blatant violation of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960,” Ramesh said.
The Congress also rejected the ECI’s claim that all three Election Commissioners had unanimously approved the SIR orders. Ramesh said the two Election Commissioners had objected on record to serious violations allegedly carried out on the CEC’s orders, but their objections were ignored. “The ECs were not even informed and learnt of these decisions from the news. This is not unanimity but unilateral decision-making,” he said.
Concerns Over ECINET
Ramesh alleged that ECINET, the ECI’s digital platform, was being used to take control of electoral rolls away from Electoral Registration Officers, who he said are the legal authority. He claimed the two Election Commissioners had raised this issue in official files, with alleged examples from Goa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
He also said the Commissioners had written to the Cabinet Secretary about the ECI’s IT division. “The ECs repeatedly expressed concern that the IT division operates opaquely, oversteps its mandate and takes unauthorised actions,” Ramesh said. He added that “there has been no change in its operation, nor any action on these issues.”
On the SIR exercise, Ramesh said many illegalities had come up in different states and accused the ECI of misusing Form 7. He said the affidavit did not deny media reports of irregularities. “The affidavit does not deny the veracity of the ongoing revelations in large sections of the media,” he said, calling it “another confirmation of the gross malpractice and legal violations by the CEC.”
The ECI, however, has said the three main SIR orders were approved unanimously, Form 6 was not changed, and no name can be added, deleted or modified in electoral rolls without an order from the concerned ERO.