NEW DELHI: As the Election Commission of India (ECI) launched the second phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists across 12 States and Union Territories including poll-bound Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, and Puducherry, the Opposition parties, including the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), on Tuesday accused the government of misusing the ECI to change the Constitution by other means.
Speaking to IANS, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said, “What was their slogan inside Parliament, outside Parliament, and in public rallies? ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar.’ Their intention was clear — to change the Constitution and take away the voting rights of minorities, backward classes, and Scheduled Castes. When they failed to do that directly, they began using the ECI through mechanisms like the NRC. That’s why yesterday, the ECI could not even specify which caste or religion the names removed from the voter list belonged to.”