Jaipur, Oct 29 — Rajasthan BJP President and Rajya Sabha MP, Madan Rathore, has defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, stating that the exercise is neither new in India nor an unprecedented practice globally. Criticising the Opposition over its protests against alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise, he claimed that SIR had been conducted 10 times during Congress governments, but the party was now questioning the process and alleging that democracy was under threat.
Rathore alleged that the Congress was attempting to create confusion by spreading misinformation and described its political approach as reflecting an Emergency-era mindset. He also accused the party of relying on foreign toolkits to advance its political agenda, saying such tactics served neither the interests of the people nor democracy.
Reacting to former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's recent remarks linking late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with democracy, Rathore accused him of making misleading statements to appease the Congress leadership.
He said that before the Congress raised slogans at its 'Bharat Bachao' rally, it should recall the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. During that period, newspapers were subjected to censorship, citizens' rights were suspended and several political leaders were imprisoned, Rathore said.
The BJP state president asserted that the party's 'Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao (Save Democracy, End Anarchy)' campaign was intended to create awareness about what he described as the Congress' contradictory position on democratic values.
Rathore also questioned the Congress' allegation that approximately 13 crore voters had been removed from electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.
Providing what he claimed was a breakdown of the figures, he alleged that 2.8 crore voters had died, 6.3 crore voters had shifted their residences, 1 crore voters were registered at more than one location and 3 crore voters could not be traced.
He maintained that voters who could not be traced had only been identified for verification and had not automatically been removed from the electoral rolls.
Questioning the Congress' objections, Rathore asked whether the party wanted votes belonging to deceased or relocated individuals to remain available for misuse by others.
He alleged that the Congress was presenting the revision exercise as a threat to democracy while overlooking the importance of maintaining accurate electoral rolls.