'Lies Spread About SIR, Efforts Being Made To Mislead People': Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said today that he feels the Special Intensive Revision of voter list by the Election Commission should not be discussed in parliament but the government is going along with the Opposition demand for a discussion to show they are "not running away from any debate or discussion". The voter list revision is nothing new and most of these revision exercises were carried out during the Congress rule. But the same Congress, he alleged, is now spreading misinformation about the process. 

Speaking on the discussion on the Special Intensive Review of voter lists in the Lok Sabha today, Shah said voter list revisions "happened during Manmohan Singh's tenure as well".

Asserting tha having one's name in two places is a common mistake, he said, "Should a voter be able to vote in more than one place? This is a process to cleanse the election process".

"The Opposition is worried since the people of the country do not vote for them and SIR will delete names of illegal immigrants who back them... Should illegal immigrants participate in elections in India?" he said.

The discussion on SIR had started in the Lok Sabha yesterday, which is being continued today. The exercise in 12 states and Union Territories currently being carried out by the Election Commission has been intensely criticised by the Opposition. 

Shah's address was punctuated by interventions from Opposition leaders that often morphed into fiery exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches.

During one of these, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, highly incensed by Shah's claims, said, "I challenge you to debate our three press conferences".

Shah had said: "Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi had dropped a nuclear bomb on November 5. But the (controversial) voter lists numbers had already been existing in Haryana... Bihar voter Minta Devi herself revealed that she made a mistake in filling out the online form... When you win, you wear new clothes and take the oath, When you win elections, the Election Commisison is great; when you lose, EC is incompetent, such double standards will not work."

He then alleged that "Some families are hereditary vote thieves" and named Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in this context.

When Gandhi challenged his comments, Shah retorted, "When senior leaders speak, don't interrupt".