Voter list rejig: TMC spots Nazi parallel, says EC move targets Bengal, poor voters
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Voter list rejig: Trinamool Congress spots Nazi parallel, says EC move targets Bengal, poor voters – Telegraph India
The Trinamool Congress on Saturday likened the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to the ‘Ahnenpass’ issued in the Third Reich in Germany. The SIR was initiated by the Election Commission in Bihar earlier this week. The Congress, CPM, RJD and CPIML have all questioned the SIR. Though special revisions have been carried out in the past, this time the EC has brought in mandatory document-based citizenship verification criteria for all voters.
“Is this the new version of the Nazi ancestor pass (Ahnenpass)?” Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien told reporters in the capital.
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He claimed the SIR was a desperate move by the Narendra Modi government ahead of the Assembly polls in Bengal next year.
According to O’Brien, the desperation stems from a recent internal survey, which shows that the BJP would get under 50 seats in Bengal. “To change it, they are making desperate attempts,” he said.
O’Brien asserted that the INDIA bloc parties will take up the issue both inside and outside Parliament. “We are all on the same page on this. We will not wait for Parliament to start. This cannot wait,” he said.
His party colleague in the Rajya Sabha, Sagarika Ghose, said that although
the intensive revision had begun in Bihar, the real target was Bengal.
Detailing the way the intensive revision will be conducted, particularly the requirement to show birth certificates of parents if the voter is born after 1987, she asked: “Do we all keep the birth certificates of our parents? What about the poor people and migrant labourers? How will they get this? Through SIR, the BJP and the EC will take away the voting rights of the citizens of India.”
Saket Gokhale, another Trinamool Rajya Sabha member, echoed chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s contention that the SIR was the National Register of Citizens through the backdoor. The Congress, CPM, RJD and CPIML have all questioned the SIR.
The voter list will be prepared afresh after the SIR. Though special revisions have been carried out in the past, this time the EC has brought in mandatory document-based citizenship verification criteria for all voters, and wants individual and not household submissions. This is expected to be expanded to other states as well.