Congress calls SIR a conspiracy after only 1,600 foreigners detected

Congress alleged that the SIR was designed to disenfranchise Indian voters and demanded Gyanesh Kumar's removal. The row has intensified scrutiny of voter deletions, ECINET and internal Election Commission deliberations.

The Congress on Thursday alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was a conspiracy designed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and executed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to deprive large sections of Indians of their constitutional right to vote, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

The Opposition party reiterated its demands that Kumar be removed, the SIR be suspended and the ECINET portal be revamped.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh shared a media report on X claiming that at least 1,600 suspected foreign nationals had been detected in six states where the SIR had either been completed or was under way. He said the figure was minuscule compared with the size of the electorate.

"The Home Minister had said that SIR had a 3D objective: to detect, delete and deport infiltrators so as to 'purify' the electoral rolls," Ramesh said, asking what the exercise had actually achieved.

"In the six states of Karnataka, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Goa and Mizoram, just 1,600 foreigners belonging to different countries have been 'detected and deleted'. Nearly 10 crore people went through the SIR in these states -- to find 1,600 'foreigners'," he said.

Ramesh said the other 20 states and Union Territories did not provide such figures because the Election Commission of India had not asked for the data to be collected. He also accused the home minister of lying.

In Karnataka, where 99.7 lakh names have been deleted, 716 foreign nationals were identified, including 545 from Nepal, Ramesh said, according to PTI.

"This only proves what has been evident all along: that SIR was always intended for ensuring that very large sections of Indians have their constitutional right to vote snatched away," he alleged.

Ramesh claimed that the SIR was a conspiracy designed by the prime minister and the home minister and executed by the chief election commissioner through various means, including ECINET.

"Gyanesh Kumar has to go. SIR has to be suspended. ECINET has to be revamped," he said, listing the Congress's demands.

On Tuesday, the Congress described the Election Commission's affidavit in the Supreme Court on the SIR as "deceptive, deceitful and duplicitous", asserting that it was "extremely damaging" to the poll body itself.

Taking a swipe at the commission, Ramesh had said: "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. And when we have done it for a while, it comes out in a crooked style."

His remarks followed the Election Commission's strong defence of the SIR before the Supreme Court. The commission maintained that the exercise was authorised by law and that the relevant orders had been approved unanimously by all three members of the poll body.

Rejecting allegations that Form 6 had been amended, the commission said in its 248-page response to a petition against the chief election commissioner and its decisions that no changes had been made to the statutory form used for voter registration.

Ramesh's latest remarks came amid a row after The Indian Express reported that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders, mostly concerning the SIR process.

The Election Commission said differing views and observations were part of deliberations in any institution, and that all its orders had full legal sanction and followed established procedures. The Congress, however, maintained its allegations against the SIR and repeated its demands for Kumar's removal, suspension of the revision exercise and an overhaul of ECINET.