NEW DELHI: In yet another remark that contradicts Congress party’s stance, senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has backed the Election Commission’s decision for a nationwide special intensive revision of electoral rolls.This comes amid opposition’s criticism of the exercise, particularly regarding concerns over potential disenfranchisement.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Tharoor said that the electoral rolls are “not perfect” and the poll body should confront these matters “very openly.”“Everyone who has participated in elections has known that the electoral rolls are not perfect. There are duplicates, dead voters, there are living voters who are not registered, there are people who have moved address and who have two or three addresses in two or three different booths,” Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
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“All of these things have existed, but if it has happened on a very big scale, then it needs to be addressed. I think the election commission’s best approach should be to confront these matters very openly. Fortunately, nowadays our digital technologies have improved so much that you can develop an algorithm to go through all the voter registrations, flag every duplicate thing, raise certain questions, do I think a revision every few years is essential, maybe every year even,” he added.However, Tharoor maintained that the credibility of the Election Commission was crucial and that any legitimate concerns raised by the opposition should be addressed.“It’s in the interest of the election commission’s own credibility that no voter should have any doubt in their minds and hearts about the fairness of the election…Challenges there are, and no one is going to achieve perfection. But we can certainly respond, I hope in a fair manner, to the legitimate concerns and the legitimate questions asked by the opposition,” he further added.Extending his support to the Centre’s recent reforms to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure, Tharoor said the Congress had long advocated for reducing the number of tax slabs, and the current system was a move towards fairness.“Now I think it’s a much fairer system and we hope it’ll be much better for everyone.” “We in the Congress party have been asking for this for many years. I think our leaders have been flagging the need to go from four rates to at least just two, or ideally one, one day, because this is actually unfair to people. When you had four rates, it was confusing, it was difficult. People were not happy about this. So now I think it’s a much fairer system and we hope it’ll be much better for everyone,” Tharoor said.Earlier, the poll body said it will conduct pan-India SIR of electoral rolls exercise on the lines of the one in Bihar.The intensive revision aims to identify and remove illegal foreign migrants by verifying place of birth, a step gaining importance amid crackdowns on migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar in several states.Meanwhile, the opposition has accused the Centre of targeting Bengali-speaking people across country, calling them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.The revision of the voters’ list in Bihar drew criticism from opposition parties, who alleged that the exercise could disenfranchise crores of eligible citizens due to lack of proper documents. The Election Commission introduced additional measures in the ongoing intensive revision of electoral rolls to address concerns over the enrollment of illegal migrants.
