Opposition claims SIR process being used to disenfranchise minority groups to benefit Narendra Modi’s government
India’s political opposition has warned that democracy is under threat amid a controversial exercise to revise the voter register across the country, which critics say will disenfranchise minority voters and entrench the power of the ruling Narendra Modi government.
An debate erupted in India’s parliament last week over the special intensive revision (SIR) process, which is taking place in nine states and three union territories, in one of the biggest revisions of the country’s electoral roll in decades.
Ostensibly a bureaucratic exercise to update the lists of citizens eligible to vote, India’s opposition leaders have instead alleged the SIR is being used by the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) as an underhand “citizenship survey”. State leaders have claimed it is being used to disenfranchise poor and minority voters – particularly Muslims – as “illegal immigrants” and manipulate the electoral roll to benefit the Modi government.
The BJP openly embraces a Hindu nationalist ideology seeking to reshape India from a secular state into a Hindu rashtra, or Hindu nation. During the party’s 11 years in power, its policies and discourse have sharply polarised the nation along religious lines fuelling a surge in anti-Muslim hostility. The BJP has gained unprecedented power over state institutions and its ruling alliance governs 21 out of 28 states.
