Amid preparations for the second day of the winter session of Parliament, Congress and other opposition MPs protested against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Opposition members, including MPs from the India Alliance, gathered outside the Makar Gate of Parliament ahead of the day’s proceedings and expressed their dissatisfaction over the ongoing SIR process.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Sonia Gandhi also joined the protest.
Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned several times on Monday, the first day of the winter session – till 12 noon, till 2 pm, and even later in the day, as opposition MPs sought discussion on the SIR held in 12 states and Union territories.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore said, “India Alliance decided yesterday morning that we will insist on discussion on issues related to SIR and election reforms. Today at 10:30 am we are protesting in front of Makar Dwar with this demand. All MPs will protest outside the Parliament.”
Tagore further stressed that the opposition wanted a debate on the issue, and he underlined its impact on citizens’ voting rights.
The Congress MP said, “I had also given agenda proposals and we are hopeful that they will be accepted. We want a debate on this topic. The government should not run away from this important issue because the right to vote is at stake. Names of 62 lakh voters have been deleted in Bihar, now it has been implemented in 12 states. A lot of BLOs are committing suicide… We want to protect India’s democracy. And for this we need a debate in Parliament.”
On Monday, Congress MP Digvijay Singh criticized the SIR for delving into the citizenship question and compared it to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
He said, “We have always been in favor of SIR. This has been happening earlier also. At that time, SIR used to run for two-four months and there was a process to register the vote of every citizen. The voter did not fill any form. The BLO used to come and ask and we used to give them information. Our vote used to be added. For this SIR, we have to fill the form and give proof of our Indian citizenship. You have implemented CAA, get it checked. This is not SIR, We are against CAA.”
Singh also said, “Our weakness is that we are not able to do the physical ground work that the Congress party should do.”
Amidst the continuous uproar and sloganeering in the House, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi hit back at the opposition and said that the Prime Minister has shown them a mirror with his “drama” taunt. He further said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party continues to create ruckus on “baseless issues”, they will have to face electoral consequences similar to the Bihar Assembly elections.
The BJP MP said, “Yesterday PM Modi showed a mirror to the opposition leaders and also advised the MPs that we should work constructively in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and wherever there is discussion, we should express our views constructively. But this did not happen. After the Bihar results, the opposition parties should have introspected and learned that if they create ruckus in Parliament, raise baseless issues, the result will be the same as what happened in Bihar.”
On the second day of the winter session, the Central Government will introduce the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to introduce the bill to amend the Central Excise Act, which also includes proposals to increase excise duty and cess on tobacco products.
