NEW DELHI, May 27: The Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the Election Commission’s power to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on Wednesday triggered sharp political reactions, with the BJP calling it a “complete defeat” of the Congress and the Opposition, while the Congress maintained that the ruling raised “more questions than it answered”.
Reacting to the verdict, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi termed it a “complete defeat” of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi on “ethical, political and constitutional” grounds.
“This is a complete defeat of the Congress, particularly Rahul Gandhi. The Congress and the opposition parties have collapsed across all three dimensions — ethical, political, and constitutional,” Trivedi told a press conference at the BJP headquarters.
He alleged that all accusations levelled by Gandhi against the SIR exercise to cover his “indolence and political incapacity” had failed and stood “completely neutralised” after the court verdict.
“I will ask the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, to do introspection after this decision of the court and abandon the use of abusive language,” the BJP MP said.
Alleging that Gandhi was peddling “lies” regarding the SIR exercise, Trivedi said the judgment had exposed the “real face” of the Congress.
“With agreement in China, family in Italy, centre for misinformation in American institutions, centre for ideas in England and Europe, and their voters’ links to Bangladesh, the Congress’ real character also stands exposed before the people of the country now,” he added.
The Congress, however, said that while it respected the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutional validity of the SIR, it strongly disagreed with the manner in which the exercise was conducted.
Senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the issue was never about the Election Commission’s power to conduct the SIR, but about the “mode, manner, timing and style” of its implementation.
“The Supreme Court has indeed acknowledged the constitutional validity of SIR, but in giving as many answers as the apex court has, it has also raised just as many questions,” Singhvi told reporters.
“The SIR is always a matter of substance, never merely a matter of form. The issue was never about the power to conduct SIR. What was being questioned was the mode, manner, timing, and style in which it was being carried out,” he added.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the party respectfully disagreed with the verdict and alleged that the process was “rife with infirmities and based on mala fide”.
“The Supreme Court has given a finding on law. We can respectfully disagree with the verdict,” Ramesh said.
“It was clearly a process rife with infirmities and based on mala fide. Legal sanction may confer prima facie legitimacy but it cannot cure malice in implementation,” he added.
Ramesh argued that while the Supreme Court held that citizenship determination lies with authorities under the Citizenship Act and not with the Election Commission, the poll body had already excluded people on citizenship grounds. (PTI)
