SIR will be used to create a permanent class of excluded Indians: Owaisi

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will be used to create a permanent class of excluded Indians.

He claimed that 6.5 crore names were deleted from the electoral rolls under SIR in 13 states and union territories.

The Hyderabad MP took to ‘X’ to slam the Centre for the proposal to constitute a committee to study the exclusions and build a permanent system for the identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants.

“The Union Government first carried out a document-driven SIR that deleted nearly 6.5 crore names from electoral rolls across 13 States and UTs. Now it wants a committee to study those very exclusions and build a permanent system for the identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants,” posted Owaisi.

“SIR will be used to create a permanent class of excluded Indians. The right to vote is the poor’s only weapon against the powerful. Without it, the government will do what it pleases with them. We are already seeing reports of people being denied the benefits of government schemes.”

“Under the law, a deletion under SIR does not mean that a person is not a citizen. Twenty-seven lakh people are still under adjudication, and many may apply afresh for enrolment as voters through Form 6. The ECI itself has provided no data on the number of people it excluded because they were foreigners. Available data show that most of those excluded by SIR are Muslims, women, the poor, and migrants,” wrote the MP.

“The government’s own data show that our demography and population have stabilised and that our TFR is 2.0. Why do we need this committee, then? So that there can be constant paranoia and fear directed against Muslims,” said the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief.

“This government loves making Indians waste their time on documentation. Sometimes it is KYC or SIR; sometimes it is uploading some document to some portal. But it cannot conduct a simple exam properly. Common people are scrutinised by the government, but the government cannot be scrutinised by us,” he added.

IANS