Calls for the Chief Election Commissioner of India to resign are being heard across the country.
The opposition parties’ allegation is that the Election Commission’s SIR-related actions are not transparent and that the Election Commission is acting in favor of the ruling central government.
In this context, we spoke to C. Murugan, an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, who served as the SIR monitoring officer in West Bengal during the legislative assembly elections held in five states last March.
“SIR is one of the Election Commission’s routine tasks. SIR is simply the name for organizing the voter list at specific intervals.
Voters who have moved may have left their names uncleared from the old place. The names of the deceased may remain on the list. It is also the Election Commission’s duty to correct all this and release a new list.
But this time, the question is why there is so much controversy over SIR and what the reason is.
Before the SIR exercise began ahead of the assembly elections in five states, only West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it should be done after the elections. They also went to court seeking to stop the SIR. But the court did not accept that request.
When I worked there as an SIR monitoring officer, I faced a lot of opposition. What I wonder is this: if a party thinks that if SIR is carried out, we cannot win, then something is clearly wrong there.
At the same time, I do not want to get into the issue of the dispute between the Chief Election Commissioner and the other commissioners in the Election Commission.
Because politicians will say things that suit them. If the opposition says the Election Commission is not good, the ruling party can say the opposition is campaigning with the 2029 election in mind.
As long as I did my job, I did it without political bias. Whether it is machine voting or the old system, there will always be people who want to bypass the system and create trouble.
However people vote, the voter list is a document. Isn’t it necessary for it to be perfect? So I have no differing opinion that S.I.R. is always a necessary measure,” he says.