Mohan Kuthar
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Oct 17: “The fire of protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country will spread from the Mangaluru Assembly constituency,” warned state Health and Family Welfare minister and Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister U T Khader.
He was speaking at the concluding programme of an overnight protest organised by the Youth Congress Committee of the Mangaluru Assembly constituency at the central bus stand in Thokkottu on Saturday morning. The protest began on Friday night, demanding the withdrawal of SIR and the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in defence of democracy.
Khader questioned why the Union government was so keen on allowing chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to continue in office despite the other two members of the Election Commission expressing their lack of confidence in him. He said using SIR as a shield to identify ordinary citizens, particularly Congress voters, and delete their names from the electoral rolls was detrimental to democracy and amounted to the murder of the Constitution.
He said members of the Election Commission themselves had written to Gyanesh Kumar 12 times, stating that deleting voters' names during elections was inappropriate. Following their letters and a press conference held by them, he asked why it was wrong for the public to demand the chief election commissioner's resignation.
Khader clarified that the Congress had never opposed SIR and had supported the process. The party's principle, he said, was to ensure that every eligible voter received the right to vote. However, he warned that the party could not tolerate applications being submitted to delete names even after the list of genuine and eligible voters had been published.
He questioned how individuals were able to submit 100 applications each seeking the deletion of voters' names, with the phone numbers, EPIC numbers, photographs and Aadhaar numbers of the people concerned appearing as computer printouts in the applications.
“Who provides the data and documents of other voters? Where are these documents printed, and who prints them? These are the questions the Congress is raising. Why has the Election Commission not disclosed this information so far?” he asked.
Khader said the Congress had developed doubts about the Election Commission because these questions remained unanswered. He alleged that those who questioned the process were being subjected to investigations and cases that had no basis. He also questioned who had given the authorities the right to delete the votes of people who were still alive.
Following the programme, an effigy of Gyanesh Kumar was burnt.
Youth Congress state general secretaries Surayya Anjum and C M Rawoof, Ullal City Mahila Congress president Amitha Ashwin Bandikote, NSUI president Shahil, Rafiq Ambalamogaru, Mustafa Harekal, C M Abdul Sattar, Abu Sameer Pajeeru, Ullal Block Congress general secretary Mansoor Manchila, Vaibhav Talapady, Abdul Shakeel, Nasir Samanige, Safwan Kerebail, Muralidhar Shetty Morla, Prakash Pinto and others were present.
Mangaluru Assembly constituency Youth Congress president Nawaz Naringana welcomed the gathering, while former Ira gram panchayat president Abdul Razak Kukkaje proposed the vote of thanks.