Sparks fly in LS over debate on polls, SIR

The National Democratic Alliance and the INDIA bloc exchanged barbs over electoral reforms and the special intensive revision in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday with the government accusing the Congress of trying to hide its poll failures and the Opposition alleging that the ruling party was indulging in vote theft.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said vote theft was the biggest anti-national act as it destroyed the fabric of the nation and the Election Commission was colluding with those in power to shape elections, demanding that machine-readable voter lists be given to political parties and immunity to election commissioners scrapped.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that election reforms could take place only if EC was impartial and suggested that an enhanced panel select the chief election commissioner and fellow election commissioners.

From the government, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal hit out at the Opposition, saying that the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voters' list was held multiple times since 1952 and was required to clean up electoral rolls, which change due to migration and rapid urbanisation.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey hit out at Gandhi over his attack on EVMs, saying the voting machines were introduced in the country by his father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi, during a pilot project in 1987.

The debate came after days of standoff between the government and the Opposition over a discussion on electoral reforms and especially SIR, which led to disruptions in the first week of the current session. It also came amid a nationwide political storm over the SIR process currently underway in 12 states and Union Territories. The previous SIR process in Bihar led to the deletion of 6.9 million names and the addition of 2.15 million.