Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan sharply criticized the Congress-led opposition for disrupting Parliament over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, calling their actions an attempt to “fear-monger” and mislead the public. Speaking at his party office in Patna after hoisting the national flag on the 79th Independence Day, Paswan defended the Election Commission’s (EC) independence, asserting that the SIR is a routine exercise by a constitutional body, not a government initiative subject to parliamentary debate.
Paswan specifically targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s upcoming 15-day ‘Matdata Adhikar Yatra,’ set to begin in Sasaram on August 17, accusing it of stoking unwarranted fears about voter list revisions. “I am bewildered by the opposition’s stance, insisting on a discussion on an exercise undertaken by the Election Commission, which is an independent constitutional body, not a wing of the government,” said the Hajipur MP. He challenged Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to identify which government department or minister could address SIR-related issues in Parliament, promising to push for a discussion if they provided a valid answer.
Drawing parallels to past controversies, Paswan accused the opposition of a pattern of “rumour-mongering,” citing their objections to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and claims during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls that Prime Minister Narendra Modi intended to alter the Constitution or scrap reservations.
“Not a single Muslim has lost citizenship due to CAA, and no reservations have been scrapped,” he said, dismissing their narratives as baseless. He also echoed Modi’s Independence Day remarks, accusing the opposition of mirroring foreign critics, like U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently called India a “dead economy” while claiming credit for halting a military standoff with Pakistan post-Operation Sindoor.
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Paswan defended the SIR, noting the EC’s openness to correcting errors in draft electoral rolls and highlighting issues like duplicate voter entries that necessitate such revisions. “The Election Commission never said it would not take remedial action if names got wrongfully deleted. It’s a failure of opposition parties that their booth-level agents haven’t filed claims and objections,” he said.
Posts on X reflect divided opinions, with some praising Paswan’s defense of the EC’s autonomy, while others back the opposition’s concerns about potential voter disenfranchisement. As the SIR debate intensifies, Paswan’s remarks underscore the deepening political rift over electoral integrity in Bihar.
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