Not against SIR, but manner of implementation: TMC's Derek O'Brien

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) While parliament debates electoral reforms, Trinamool Congress leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien on Wednesday said the exercise in itself is not a problem, but the way it is being implemented is.

In a blog published on Wednesday, the TMC leader also pointed out that border security is the domain of the Union Home Ministry, amid charges of illegal immigrants being part of the electoral rolls.

"Let's be very clear. No one is against SIR (Special Intensive Revision) as a concept. No one is against having clean electoral rolls," O'Brien said.

"It is the methodology and the haphazard implementation that is being questioned. We are looking for answers to many questions," he said.

The TMC leader wondered if the SIR is meant to protect the voter list.

"Four states are going to elections in a few months. Assam, Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Three out of these four states are going through the SIR process," he said. SIR is underway already in Assam.

O'Brien asked the Centre why there had been no SIR in states like Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland, which share borders with Bangladesh or Myanmar.

He said protecting borders from infiltration is the responsibility of the Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Reserve Police Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, all of which agencies come under the MHA.

"These institutions are all under the Home Minister. So who should be held accountable?" he asked.

"There have been innumerable cases of Bengali-speaking citizens being targeted solely due to their mother tongue. Those who speak Bengali in a different dialect have been labelled infiltrators," he said.

O'Brien said the same electoral rolls, which are now being vetted, were used for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"How did these rolls become defective overnight? And if they are indeed defective, should the Lok Sabha, elected through these supposedly compromised rolls, not be dissolved immediately? Will the Union Government call for fresh elections?" he said.

Who is responsible for the "human cost" of the exercise, O'Brien asked.

Several people engaged in the SIR work have committed suicide over the past few weeks, allegedly under the pressure of the humongous exercise.

"At the height of the Rabi season, why were thousands of farmers forced to stand in day-long queues? Why were daily-wage workers losing their wages running pillar to post to authenticate their documents? Why were development programmes in many states brought to a standstill?" O'Brien said.

"Who will take responsibility for the lives of Block Level Officers (BLOs) lost because of the inhuman psychological and physical pressures while executing SIR?" he said, adding, the Election Commission is a constitutional body, and its functioning should be non-partisan.

"But what is happening in Bengal leading up to the Assembly elections deserves scrutiny..." he said.

He pointed out a change in a rule that allows booth-level agents to be appointed from any registered elector of the same Assembly Constituency, while the earlier rule required the BLA to be a registered elector in the 'part of the Electoral roll' for which he/she is appointed.

"There is an AI app being used to identify duplicate voters. There is no clarity about who built it, when the tenders were issued, or what data the app uses," he said.

"Looking for answers is not anti-national," the TMC leader said. PTI AO VN VN