At the Election Commission’s gates in Hyderabad, a protest over the right to vote

Outside the Election Commission office at BRKR Bhavan, near Tank Bund in Hyderabad, the police stood guard as protesters raised slogans against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday, October 12. An estimated 20 people, including concerned citizens, students and members of civil society groups, had gathered to oppose the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. They were stopped from entering the premises and continued their demonstration outside.

The questions driving the protest concerned something fundamental to the electoral process: whose names remain on the voter list, and what happens to those who find themselves left off it? The demonstrators argued that the SIR could disproportionately affect minority and marginalised communities. They called for the revision exercise to be scrapped and the original electoral rolls restored.

Speaking to Pioneer Digital, protester Rafey Nasir demanded action against Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Chief Election Commissioner of taking an “anti-national stance”. He also called for the SIR to be scrapped.

Nasir raised concerns over alleged voter deletions in Ghousa Mahal and Murshidabad, questioning the reported proportion of Muslim voters whose names had been removed in the latter.

“How can 63 per cent of the deletions be among Muslims when they constitute around 18 per cent of the population?” he asked.

He also questioned the removal of voters who had migrated to other states, arguing that people who move for employment or other reasons should not be left uncertain about their voting rights.

“This process is undemocratic, dictatorial and totalitarian. People are being made to feel like criminals for being in their own country,” Nasir said.

Another protester, Gani Khateeb, called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resign, holding the Union government responsible for the revision process. He alleged that Muslims and other marginalised communities faced the risk of having their names deleted from electoral rolls.

Khateeb also criticised the police action against students during protests in Delhi, saying the treatment of demonstrators raised concerns about the right to peaceful protest.

For Khateeb, the concerns over the SIR were inseparable from the question of who gets to exercise the right to vote. As the protesters continued to press for the revision to be scrapped, he returned to the demand that had brought them to BRKR Bhavan in the first place: “The SIR directly threatens Muslims and marginalised communities. The government must scrap the process and restore the original electoral rolls.”