EC statement exposes Congress manufactured lie on SIR: Nabin

After the Election Commission on Saturday issued a statement on SIR, BJP president Nitin Nabin alleged that the Congress tried to build its allegations around a “manufactured lie” to attack the poll panel.

“The opposition has once again been exposed for misleading the public on SIR,” Nabin said in a post on X. The BJP chief’s remarks came after the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday asserted that all orders related to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls were issued after approval from all three election commissioners, and the changes in Form 6, through which names are included in the voters’ list, have been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Amid the ongoing row over “differences” between two election commissioners and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the EC said in the statement that letters sent by the two commissioners — Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi — to the Cabinet secretary were not related to any policy matter of the Commission or its IT division, but to the working of an officer on deputation to the poll panel.

“The Election Commission has made it clear that every decision relating to the SIR was taken unanimously by the full Commission. Yet, the Congress chose to build its allegations around a manufactured lie and attack our constitutional bodies,” the BJP chief alleged. Nabin said the “hypocrisy” of the Congress and its allies is evident as when the same electoral process delivers victories for them in states like Keralam and Tamil Nadu, its credibility is readily accepted.

“But when people’s mandate goes against them elsewhere, they question the very institutions that conduct those elections,” he said, adding: “Democracy cannot be respected selectively.” Nabin also said that wins and losses are inherent parts of a democracy, but resorting to “malicious propaganda” to discredit respected constitutional institutions is “deeply unfortunate”.

“Those who repeatedly undermined India’s democratic framework for political survival owe the nation an honest reckoning and a public apology,” the BJP president said.  The row was triggered after The Indian Express recently reported that questions were repeatedly raised on issues related to SIR within the three-member EC by Sandhu and Joshi. The national rollout of the SIR has been under the supervision of all three commissioners. But Sandhu and Joshi formally objected, on record, at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions taken and orders issued, they say, without their knowledge, according to the report, which triggered a huge political row with the Congress demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and arrest.