The widest-reaching impact of @IndianExpress' Election Commission investigation yet.
10 days after our investigation into the rupture inside the Election Commission, the poll watchdog has told all 20 states where SIR is over to run a “special drive” to bring back voters “left out” of the rolls.
State CEOs have been told to identify voters deleted as unmapped or for “logical discrepancy” and that BLOs should go house to house to help bring them back. They will use Form 6 to apply for inclusion of such “left out” voters.
And the question added to Form 6 in July, asking whether your parents were on the last SIR roll, which one Commissioner called “unauthorised/illegal,” now applies only during the “SIR phase.”
What does that mean? In the 20 states where SIR is over, “left out” voters and first-time voters will use the plain statutory Form 6, without the question seeking details of their family’s link to the last SIR.
Reporting with @vallabhozarkarr.
https://t.co/iZJTYJCwUZ via @IndianExpress
They are dividing us in the name of Hindu & Muslim and taking away our voting rights.
We must not let them divide us. We must all come together to save our country and our voting rights!
If Gyanesh Kumar doesn’t resign, cockroaches from across India will march to Delhi & protest at Jantar Mantar on October 10.
If Delhi Police tries to stop us, wherever they stop us will become our Jantar Mantar..
Ours will be a peaceful andolan. We will walk on the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi. It is up to the Govt & the Delhi Police whether they respect our right to peaceful protest or repeat the brutality we witnessed on July 20.
This is a fight to save our democracy. Every citizen who wants free & fair elections must join.
On Tuesday, the Election Commission said all was well:
The 14 objections by two of its three members were "suggestions," every decision was "unanimous."
With in 48 hours, on Saturday, it issued NINE decisions. Read them against the 14 notes. It's a U-TURN, not in what it says, but in what it does.
And it still leaves some hard Qs unanswered.
Stay with me.
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People in India have become so desensitized to corruption that a person in public service can openly boast that his government in the state is the same as the one at the Centre—and then talk about “looting India to the max.”
When such language becomes normalized, what kind of nation are we building?
The SIR exposé reveals that corruption in India has gone far beyond financial wrongdoing. It has seeped into the minds of millions, corrupting not just institutions, but the very way people think.
The Election Commission of India is under fire like never before.
The SIR has struck 13 crore names off draft rolls, putting the EC at the centre of intense public debate over its role in deciding who gets to vote — and who doesn’t.
HOWEVER, what nobody knew: through that same period, some of the sharpest questions were being asked from inside.
Out today, after months of work. Our #ExpressInvestigation 🧵
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Hindus have to stop wearing religion on their sleeves. Symbols of religiosity-robes, tilaks, forehead markings-are not certificates of character. The more religion is displayed as a badge of virtue, the more skeptical I become. Judge people by their actions, not by the symbols they wear.
One gets bail within days despite being caught on camera.
Other languishes in jail for six years without even a trial or hearing.
Same justice system. Very different approach.