Monday Kerala Assembly voted unanimously in a resolution to protest the decision by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state voters’ list. The resolution strongly encouraged the poll body to undertake the revision in a transparent and consultative way. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had moved the motion and was given full backing by the Congress-led UDF opposition, on which they had earlier raised serious reservations concerning the SIR process.
CM Vijayan raised an objection, in the resolution, to what he termed the speedy action of the ECI, and indicated the possibility of a bad motive behind the action. He pointed to popular concerns that the SIR, particularly in poll-bound states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, would become a backdoor effort to enforce the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Citing the recent SIR exercise of Bihar, Vijayan purported that the exercise resulted in the illogical disenfranchisement of eligible voters, a politics of exclusion, and that such a strategy could be extended to the rest of the country.
The resolution also doubted the timing of the SIR, because local body elections are just on the horizon of Kerala, and the assembly elections are not far behind. The Chief Minister described the hurried exercise as ill-intended and said that it imposes a cloud of suspicion on the ECI.
Vijayan attacked the methodology, pointing out that the voter list revision was being carried out on the basis of 2002 records, which he described as unscientific. He also pointed out clauses in the SIR that demand voters not born prior to 1987 submit certificates of citizenship of their parents to be eligible to vote, and those not born after 2003 must do the same. Research shows that the marginalised communities are disproportionately impacted by such provisions and may be locked out of the electoral roll.
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