Anjali Bhardwaj

Working on issues of transparency and accountability

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Watch why the Supreme Court must recall its SIR judgment & call for records from ECI to ascertain who took the decision to undertake SIR, as Justice Gowda said.
In response to my RTI application, the Principal Secretary of ECI stated that the Commission has not taken any decision on initiating a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country.
Who took the decision to undertake SIR, if not the ECI?

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

21 years of people’s Right to Information
As citizens of India take to the streets to demand the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and scrapping of the SIR, let us take a moment to celebrate our Right to Information law that turns 21 today. The RTI law has been instrumental in accessing information from the Election Commission of India - information that has established that the decision to undertake the SIR was not taken by the ECI and that the Commission was working in an illegal manner.
On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the RTI Act, Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) has released the key findings of the ‘Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India, 2025-26’, which shows that-
- Nearly 4 lakh cases are pending in information commissions across India.
- 14 commissions have an estimated waiting time of more than 1 year to dispose a matter.
- 3 of these 14 commissions have an estimated waiting time of more than 15 years.
Let us pledge to use and protect our fundamental Right to Information, that empowers us to hold the powerful to account.

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Wah, Modi ji, wah!
Jantar Mantar not a designated protest site anymore.
In democracies across the world - France, US, UK - citizens take over the streets in the heart of their capital cities to exercise their right to protest. But in mother of democracy, people being sent to Burari, CBD ground and Ramlila Maidan!
Why is Modi Sarkar so scared of peaceful protests by citizens?

[Arvind Gunasekar @arvindgunasekar]

Jantar Mantar denotified as designated protest site.

Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground are the new designated protest sites.

[Dushyant Arora @atti_cus]

Verified and URGENT.

11:26 PM

A dozen detainees STILL at mandir marg police station. What the hell is happening?

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Delhi police, women will not be intimidated by your crass, illegal tactics. You will be held accountable for all your actions.
#ScrapSIR
#GyaneshResign
@aishe_ghosh @neha_aisa @mehartweets @whattalawyer https://t.co/5FiFMPr2Wy

[Siddharth @svaradarajan]

“Somebody – we don’t know who – decided that a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters had to be conducted. The Election Commission of India (ECI) told RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj that it did not have minutes of any meeting that decided upon the SIR. 

“Somebody – we are now piecing this together – decided that Form 6 would be given to new voters to register during SIR but it would be altered so that they cannot do so without proving that their grandfather was also on the voter list decades ago. 

“Somebody – and we don’t know who – invented a tool called ‘logical discrepancy’ and wrote algorithms to eliminate voters for 11 different reasons. More than 13 crore names were deleted from India’s electoral rolls thus.

“But we do know who built the digital system which helped that somebody do all this. It’s not a government department or company. It is a private company – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – whose parent group had, in the very years that it was building that system, become the single largest identifiable funder of the party running the government the system serves.

“None of that, by itself, proves wrongdoing. Companies build government software everywhere. In fact, TCS itself has done a tremendous job of building and running India’s passport system.

“Companies donate to ruling parties everywhere the law permits it. What is unusual is the scale of the overlap, the choices made by TCS – or thrust upon it – in building the system, and how little of it has been publicly examined.”

Truly outstanding piece by S Raghotham connecting the dots…

[Neha Bora Team @NehaAisa]

No restrictions can curb democracy!
Protest has started today from RK Ashram!

Join in large numbers!

[Neha Bora Team @NehaAisa]

🚨 DEMOCRACY CANNOT BE SILENCED!

Our peaceful protest has begun at RK Ashram. No restrictions can silence our voices. Join us in solidarity and stand up for our democratic rights! ✊

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Virtual hearings and live-streaming are an essential part of open justice. Judges cannot simply pull the plug or mute proceedings on a whim to shut out transparency.. Kudos to lawyers who protested and forced the court to allow virtual hearings.
Democracy dies in darkness.

[Live Law @LiveLawIndia]

#BREAKING #SupremeCourt restrains virtual hearing facility. Petitioner-side lawyers said they will not argue/proceed unless VC is allowed

Court decides to hold proceedings in Court No. 5.

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Yesterday, when thousands were detained across Delhi during the protests against SIR & CEC Gyanesh Kumar, the police DENIED people access to legal counsel. Police was not giving information about the detainees and was not allowing lawyers to interact with them. All this is documented & publicly available - courts need to take suo motu cognisance of these ILLEGAL actions of the police.

[Neha @neha_aisa]

Let a hundred Jantar Mantars bloom!

Another part of Delhi will become Jantar Mantar tomorrow!

Stay tuned for updates.

[Frontline @frontline_india]

NEW | "SIR has really shaken the faith of the people in the ECI," said activist @AnjaliB_ in a webinar with Frontline today.

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Democracy in detention. The extent to which the government is going to protect Gyanesh Kumar shows how he is crucial for the regime. Police officers should remember they are here to serve the public and have a duty to protect people’s constitutional rights. Each one of them will be held accountable for their illegal acts.

[NDTV @ndtv]

Massive Crackdown On CJP Protest: 4 Ex-Chief Ministers Among 1,500 Detained In Delhi
https://t.co/Zxc7fnZ4Py

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Where has Delhi police taken @abhijeet_dipke @SauravDassss @AshutoshRanka ? Disclose their location and release all detained protestors NOW.
#GyaneshResign
#ScrapSIR

[Rajdeep Sardesai @sardesairajdeep]

BIG: Abhijit Dipke @abhijeet_dipke @AshutoshRanka @SauravDassss picked up and detained from the flight itself on landing in Delhi.. a JCB being used to kill a few cockroaches?

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Thousands of peaceful protestors detained across Delhi - activists, lawyers and even journalists. Look how senior advocates were brutally dragged and detained by the Delhi police.
किस किस को क़ैद करोगे?
#GyaneshResign #ScrapSIR

[Tamal Saha @Tamal0401]

He is a senior advocate of Supreme Court - taken away by #DelhiPolice like this as surprise protest erupts. Location south delhi flyover. Several detained

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Delhi police, release all the women from detention IMMEDIATELY! It is past 6pm now.
ज्ञानेश कुमार इस्तीफ़ा दो!
SIR की रद्द करो!

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Hundreds of youth demonstrators have been detained in India's capital, New Delhi, during a protest called by ⁠the Cockroach Janta Party to demand the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner over alleged voter list fraud.

🟠 LIVE updates: https://t.co/CG3gHk4IHH

[Prashant Bhushan @pbhushan1]

कल सुबह दिल्ली में वोट चोरी के ख़िलाफ़ एक प्रोटेस्ट होगा। इसमें सभी साथियों को आने की कोशिश करनी चाहिए। दिल्ली पुलिस अगर ज़बरदस्ती रोकती है, तो जहाँ रोकती है आप वहीं बैठ जाइए, और वहीं से अपना प्रोटेस्ट जारी रखिए। ये हमारे लोकतंत्र को बचाने की लड़ाई है। इसमें सब को जुडने की ज़रूरत है।

[Anjali Bhardwaj @AnjaliB_]

Blot on our democracy!
In the 80th year of our independence from the British, We, the people of India, are being prevented from exercising our fundamental right to protest peacefully against the fraudulent SIR.
Trains coming into Delhi being cancelled, metro stations shut down and students and protesters being detained across India.
Modi सरकार शर्म करो!
SIR को रद्द करो!
Gyanesh Kumar इस्तीफ़ा दो ✊🏽✊🏽

[Frontline @frontline_india]

NEW WEBINAR TOMORROW! 🚨

Join the discussion with Frontline's @SoniMishra20, former Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat, independent investigative journalist @poonamjourno, and transparency activist @AnjaliB_.

Time: 11 am

To register/join: https://t.co/5ay41Mc1ib

[Frontline @frontline_india]

Register here for the webinar tomorrow!

https://t.co/5ay41Mcz7J

@SoniMishra20 @poonamjourno @AnjaliB_