Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah today participated in the discussion on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha.

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that Parliament is the largest forum for national discussion, and we never shy away from debate. He said that whatever the issue may be, we are always ready for discussion according to the rules of the Parliament. He stated that the Opposition wanted a discussion in the name of Special Intensive Revision or SIR, but such a discussion cannot take place in this House because the responsibility for Special Intensive Revision lies with the Election Commission, and the Commission does not work under the Government. Shri Shah said that it had been decided to hold a discussion on electoral reforms, but most members of the Opposition spoke about SIR instead.

Shri Amit Shah said that for the past four months, one-sided lies have been spread about SIR, and attempts are being made to mislead the people of the country. He said that the Election Commission was constituted under the Articles of the Constitution and is, in a sense, a constitutional body. The Constitution has entrusted the Election Commission with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections, as well as preparing and revising the electoral rolls.He said that Part 15 of the Constitution, in Article 324, provides for the establishment of the Election Commission, the appointment of Election Commissioners, and gives the Election Commission full control over the elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, the Vice President, and the President. Shri Shah said that Article 325 provides that no eligible voter can be excluded from the electoral roll, and Article 326 is extremely important for Special Intensive Revision. The Constitution defines a voter’s eligibility, qualifications, and conditions for being a voter in Article 326. He said the first condition is that the voter must be a citizen of India and not a foreigner. The second condition is that any person above 18 years of age can become a voter, and the third condition is that a voter’s validity is determined on the basis of provisions laid down from time to time in law regarding mental incapacity, involvement in crime, or corruption.He said that based on these three qualifications, a person’s eligibility to be an Indian voter is decided, and all three aspects must be examined by the Election Commission. The Home Minister said that Article 327 empowers the Election Commission to recommend laws related to electoral rolls, delimitation, the conduct of elections, and other connected matters. Article 327 gives the Election Commission complete authority to prepare the electoral rolls according to this interpretation.

Union Home Minister said that the beginning of our democratic history was in 1952, and the first Special Intensive Revision took place in 1952. The second was in 1957, and the third in 1961, when the Prime Minister belonged to the Opposition party. Special Intensive Revisions were also carried out in 1965 and 1966, and during those times as well, the Prime Minister was from an Opposition party. He further said that revisions were conducted in 1983–84, 1987–89, and 1992–93–95, and even then, the Prime Minister was the leader of the main Opposition party. Shri Shah said that when the revision took place in 2002–03, the Prime Minister was from his own party. He added that in 2004, the process of intensive revision was concluded. He said that after 2004, the next Special Intensive Revision is taking place only in 2025, and no political party has ever opposed this process till date, because it is meant to maintain the sanctity of elections, the objectives of elections, and the purity of democracy. Shri Shah said that if the electoral roll—which forms the basis of elections in a democracy—is contaminated, then how can elections be clean and fair? He stated that periodic intensive revision of the electoral roll is necessary, and therefore, the Election Commission decided that it would be conducted in 2025.

Shri Amit Shah said that a provision was introduced in 2010 that a person’s name cannot be struck off the electoral roll. He added that even then the government was from the main Opposition party. He explained that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) involves removing names due to death or duplicate entries (people registered in two places), adding names when a person turns 18, and selectively deleting those who are foreign citizens. He said that if intruders decide who will be the country’s Prime Minister or a state’s Chief Minister, can any country’s democracy remain secure? Shri Shah stated that a voter should not be able to vote in more than one place. He said that SIR is only the cleansing of the electoral roll, but it hurts the political interests of some parties. Shri Shah said that foreigners should not be given the right to vote to elect this country’s Parliament or state legislatures.

Union Home Minister said that Special Intensive Revision is simply the process of improving the electoral roll. He said that whether the electoral roll is old or new, a party’s defeat is not caused by the roll — it results from anti-incumbency faced by those who act against public interest. Shri Shah said that when we lose elections the Opposition does not oppose the electoral roll, but when there is a heavy defeat like in a recently held state, they oppose the rolls. He added that when you win, the Election Commission is great; when you lose, accusations are made against the Commission. When you win, the electoral roll is good; when you lose, the electoral roll is bad — but this kind of double standard cannot be allowed in a democracy. Shri Shah said that there are some families here who engage in inherited vote-stealing.

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that we too have sat in the opposition. He said that whether it is a state or the Centre, we have never levelled allegations against the Election Commission or the Election Commissioners. Shri Shah said that the Election Commission is an institution that conducts elections with impartiality, and it has been recognised not by any political party but by the Constitution. He said that voter verification is a constitutional process, and by raising questions on this constitutional process and levelling baseless allegations, the opposition is working to tarnish the image of the Election Commission worldwide. By doing so, the opposition is also damaging the image of India's democracy in the world.

Shri Amit Shah said that since Shri Narendra Modi ji became Prime Minister in May 2014, the opposition has had objections. He said that the NDA has won three Lok Sabha elections and 41 state assembly elections—that is, a total of 44 elections—while opposition parties have also won 30 assembly elections. If there is any irregularity in the voter list, then why did the opposition parties take oath after winning elections and why did they even contest them? He said that if there are minor mistakes in the voter list, then verification is being done, and this process itself means correcting the voter list. However, opposition parties boycott this process, and their governments do not cooperate in it. Shri Shah said that the purification of the voter list is a demand of the opposition itself, and the Election Commission is doing exactly that.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that if the opposition believes that in a democracy, only questions of their liking should be asked of them, then this is not possible because this is not an Emergency. He said that if a journalist asks a question, you label him as an agent of the ruling party; when you lose a case, you blame the judge; and when you lose an election, you raise questions about EVMs. When the argument of tampering with EVMs did not convince people, the opposition made "vote theft" an issue and launched a yatra across Bihar, but they still lost. He said that the reason for the opposition's defeat is their own leadership, not EVMs or the voter list.

Shri Amit Shah said that on 15 March 1989, when the leader of the main opposition party was the Prime Minister of the country, legal changes were made to introduce EVMs. A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld the legal changes related to EVMs in 2002. Then, in 1998, a trial was conducted in only 16 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi. He said that after thorough checks, the use of EVMs began across the country for the first time in 2004, and at that time the opposition won. He said that the 2009 election was also conducted using EVMs, and after winning, the opposition remained silent. He told the opposition that you made the law on the usage of EVMs, you introduced the machine, the first and second elections held with EVMs were also won by the opposition, you ruled for ten years, but when you lost, you started alleging tampering in EVMs.

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that after five years of research, VVPAT was introduced, which shows that the vote cast by the voter has been registered on the symbol of the party he chose. But then the opposition started making allegations about VVPAT as well. He said that the Election Commission then decided that 5% of EVMs and VVPATs would be matched. So far, 16,000 EVMs and VVPATs have been matched, but not a single vote has been found to be changed in even one of them. During counting, polling agents of all parties are present, and they sign the results. They also sign both types of results—those from EVMs and from VVPATs.

The Home Minister said that in 2009, in response to allegations of tampering with EVMs, the Election Commission challenged everyone by installing 100 EVMs in 10 states. Everyone tried, but no one could tamper with any EVM. He said that in June 2017, the Election Commission kept EVMs in its office for three days and announced that any political party, any technical expert, or any scientist could come and hack the EVMs. But the opposition did not even show up. He said that the opposition only makes allegations in the press; they neither go to court nor to the Election Commission. In 2017, the Election Commission concluded that all future elections would be held using EVMs. But why is the opposition opposing it so much? Shri Shah said that earlier, entire ballot boxes used to be hijacked. After the arrival of EVMs, all that stopped. Vote theft has ended, and that is why they are in pain.
Shri Amit Shah said that Shri Narendra Modi ji is the Prime Minister who has travelled the most in public contact since independence. He said that Shri Modi ji has not taken a single day off since 2001 and continues to work tirelessly for the people. The Home Minister said that since the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014, the main opposition party has not given even a single suggestion to the Election Commission for electoral reforms. He said that it is the Modi government that included opposition leaders in the process of appointing Election Commissioners; earlier, only the Prime Minister used to decide this.

The Home Minister said that Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, provides that a candidate can file an election petition within 45 days of being elected, and after 45 days no one can challenge it. Shri Shah said that the immunity granted to Election Commissioners under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, has not been increased at all by us. He said that the opposition’s real issue is to keep illegal infiltrators on the voter list. He said that even if the opposition boycotts the House 200 times, we will not allow even a single illegal infiltrator to vote in the country. The Home Minister said that the government’s policy is to Detect, Delete, and Deport, and we will carry out this work through constitutional processes.

Shri Amit Shah said that the opposition’s policy is to first normalise the infiltrators, grant them recognition, and then formalise them by adding them to the voter list. He said that such a massive change in demographics poses a very big danger to the country. This country has already been divided once on the basis of demographics, and we do not want future generations to witness another partition of this country. He said that even if the opposition boycotts the House 200 times, we will not grant voting rights to even a single infiltrator.

Union Home Minister said that the ideology of the RSS is to die for the country, take the nation to the pinnacle of prosperity, and raise the flag of Indian culture high. He said that the opposition opposed surgical strikes, air strikes, the abrogation of Article 370, the construction of the Ram Temple, removal of infiltrators, CAA, abolition of triple talaq, and One Nation One Election—that is why we keep winning. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has tripled the country’s infrastructure. Shri Shah said that in Tamil Nadu, the opposition alliance has moved an impeachment motion against a judge who granted Hindus the right to worship—the people of the country will never forgive them for this.

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