Mumbai, Oct 6 (IANS) The Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Tuesday launched an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the implementation of the Special Information Revision (SIR) process.
The Thackeray camp in the party’s mouthpiece, ‘Samaana’, defended the protest rally held on Sunday in Mumbai by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and allied democratic groups. Its defence was triggered by sharp criticism from senior BJP leaders. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis dismissed the opposition rally as a desperate attempt to find political ground, while state Minister Ashish Shelar termed the protest “cheap politics” and its demands “howling”.
Strongly condemning these remarks, the Thackeray camp called the BJP’s stance an insult to the public, accusing the party of arrogance and relying on a “corrupt Election Commission” to stay in power. The mouthpiece alleged that across India, nearly 13 crore voters, including over two crore in Maharashtra alone, were arbitrarily stripped of their voting rights without prior notice or a fair hearing.
“This is the arrogance of power, and the BJP is enjoying this power by empowering thieves like Gyanesh Kumar. Lakhs of people took to the streets in Mumbai holding the Tricolour. Calling their protest “whining” is an insult to the Tricolour itself. A man like PM Modi pretends to cry every day; when one person cries like that, it is whining. But when 5 to 10 lakh people cry together out of anguish, it creates an upheaval powerful enough to overthrow tyrannical rule. Out of that ‘whining’, the wild fires of rebellion ignite,” warned the editorial.
Highlighting recent legal and administrative criticism of the SIR process, the editorial cited the observation by Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan. Justice Bhuyan observed that any arbitrary procedure depriving citizens of their right to vote violates the constitutional framework, stating that stripping a citizen’s right to vote is akin to “separating the soul from the body”. He emphasised that names of living voters cannot be deleted without due process and advance notice.
The editorial also referenced former Union Home Secretary and ex-BJP Minister R.K. Singh, who publicly declared the nationwide SIR drive unlawful. Singh noted that removing voters without proper inquiry or hearings directly violates Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act. “If an experienced administrative officer and a Supreme Court Judge both call this process arbitrary and illegal, will the BJP call their observations ‘howling’ as well?” the editorial questioned.
“So Fadnavis and company should publicly announce whether what such a capable former official says about ‘SIR’ is also ‘howling,’ it said.
The editorial reiterated the core demands of the protesters who marched through the streets of Mumbai, the immediate revocation of the SIR process, the scrapping of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), and a return to the ballot paper.
Taking a sharp personal jab at BJP leaders, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena concluded with a satirical note, suggesting that “given the rhetoric from leaders like Fadnavis and Shelar, playwrights influenced by the RSS should write a new drama titled ‘Puppies of the Jackal’.”
Warning the ruling government against brushing aside public anger, the editorial said that “when millions of citizens unite against injustice with the national flag in hand, it sparks a rebellion capable of dethroning authoritarian regimes”.
–IANS
sj/dpb