Jairam Ramesh questions SIR's rationale, says only 1,600 foreign nationals identified in six states

New Delhi, Oct 29 (UNI) Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh on Thursday accused union Home Minister Amit Shah of misleading the country over the objectives of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, arguing that official figures cited by him showed that only 1,600 foreign nationals had been identified among nearly 10 crore people covered by the exercise in six states.

In a post on the social media platform X, Ramesh recalled that Shah had described SIR as having a "3D objective" - to "detect, delete and deport" infiltrators - with the stated aim of "purifying" electoral rolls. Questioning the rationale behind the extensive revision, he cited figures from Karnataka, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Goa and Mizoram to argue that the number of foreign nationals identified was disproportionately small compared with the scale of the exercise. "Nearly 10 crore people went through the SIR in these states - to find 1600 'foreigners',"

Ramesh said. He added that comparable figures were unavailable for the other 20 states and union Territories because, according to him, the Election Commission of India had not asked them to collect such data. Citing Karnataka as an example, Ramesh said 99.7 lakh names had been deleted from the state's electoral rolls, while only 716 foreign nationals had been identified, including 545 from Nepal. He argued that the figures raised questions about whether the scale of the revision was proportionate to its stated objective of identifying foreign nationals and removing ineligible voters.

The Congress leader alleged that the exercise went beyond the identification of ineligible voters and risked depriving large numbers of Indian citizens of their constitutional right to vote. He described SIR as a "conspiracy" allegedly devised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah and implemented by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar through various means, including ECINET, the Election Commission's digital platform for election-related services. Ramesh reiterated the Congress's demand for Kumar's removal, suspension of the SIR exercise and a revamp of ECINET. "Gyanesh Kumar has to go. SIR has to be suspended. ECINET has to be revamped," he said.

The controversy over SIR has sharpened the confrontation between the Opposition and the Election Commission, with the Congress and other opposition parties alleging that the revision process lacks transparency and could lead to the exclusion of eligible voters. The Election Commission has undertaken the exercise as part of its efforts to revise electoral rolls, while the Opposition has questioned its implementation, the criteria used for deletions and the safeguards available to voters whose names are removed.

The figures cited by Ramesh have added a fresh dimension to the political dispute, with the Congress arguing that the identification of a relatively small number of foreign nationals cannot, by itself, justify the extensive exercise or the large-scale deletions it has highlighted. The party has called for the revision to be suspended and for greater transparency in the functioning of the poll body and its digital systems.

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