Jagat Prakash Nadda (ANI photo)
NEW DELHI: Leader of the House J P Nadda on Tuesday asked the opposition parties to come together to back special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll, while pointing out how West Bengal has seen a massive spike in its electorate from 4.8 crore to 7.6 crore since the last SIR in 2002.Citing ECI data during the debate in Rajya Sabha on electoral reforms, Nadda said the minimum increase in voters list of the 9 West Bengal districts bordering Bangladesh was 70% since 2002, while the maximum had crossed 100%. He shared that Uttar Dinajpur has witnessed the highest spike in electors at 105.5%, Malda at 94.8%, Murshidabad at 87.6%, 24 Parganas at 83.5% and Jalpaiguri at 82.3%.“In West Bengal, the total increase in (numbers of ) a particular community is 7.5%,” he said while asking the members why the Election Commission should not go about its mandate to detect the illegal immigrants who may be responsible for this spike.
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“Should they not be detected, deleted and deported?” he asked.He concluded the debate by saying that the discussion on such serious issues should not rest on political considerations, but on what is important for the nation. “We must ponder on whether the country should be run as per the mandate from illegal immigrants or as per the mandate of its citizens?” he said and sought the cooperation of all parties in EC’s SIR drive to weed out non-citizens from the rolls. Nadda mocked the opposition for criticising EC as ‘vote chor’, drawing attention to Rahul Gandhi’s 16-day ‘vote adhikar yatra’ during SIR in Bihar. “He toured 25 districts but the Congress was wiped out in 21 of these 25 districts (in Bihar polls). The Congress ended up with 6 seats and the Mahagathbandhan alliance, with all of 33 seats.DMK’s Tiruchi Siva got up during Nadda’s speech to clarify that the opposition was not against SIR per se but the manner in which it was being done.Participating in the debate earlier, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien accused the government of using SIR to divide people, so as to distract and deflect from its failures.Referring to home minister Amit Shah’s remark in Lok Sabha to “detect, delete, deport” illegal immigrants as a matter of NDA govt policy, Derek said the actual D’s are for “divide, distract and deflect”.He said it was the home minister, and not the chief minister, who was in charge of the borders and preventing infiltration.The debate had on Monday seen Congress leader Randeep Surjewala arguing how electoral reforms strike at the heart of India’s freedom struggle and constitutional democracy, warning that any dilution of voting rights or institutional independence would hollow out the republic from within. “If universal voting rights, free and fair elections by an independent Election Commission, and constitutional institutions are weakened, democracy becomes an illusion,” he said.
