People Against SIR (PA-SIR), a platform for civil society, students and farmers’ organisations, has decided to step up its agitation against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, giving a call for peaceful protests across the country between November 26 and December 20.
The agitation will be coordinated with mass organisations, and by holding a People’s Parliament, people’s referendum, voter list audiots, and dharnas.
The group noted the recent “backtracking measures” taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to roll back or soften some of its “illegal and unconstitutional” conduct of the last 16 months. “However, these belated half measures fail to address the main issue of the mass disenfranchisement and undemocratic nature of the SIR, which only further firms up the resolve to see it scrapped in toto,” the PA-SIR said in a statement issued after the meeting. Transparency Rights activist Anjali Bhardwaj said the platform reiterates that its agitation will continue till the SIR is scrapped and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is removed and prosecuted.
