Who’s eligible to be included in voters’ list?
Success of an electoral process such as an election is dependent on full participation of citizens. A candidate wins or loses based on the number of votes polled for him. The government also spends a lot of funds trying to create awareness about the significance of voting. But at the same time, a well-planned conspiracy is underway to keep some eligible voters out of the voting list to deny them the right to carry out a democratic duty. This act has active participation from politicians, government officials and even police officers, thus threatening the whole process of democracy.
Earlier, people voted on proxy. They were fake, duplicate votes cast twice or more times by the same person. Someone would usurp the vote of someone else. All this would work at the behest of local rowdies and small time political goondas. But, the act that has been planned now will mostly do away with the names of people from the voting list itself, where they’d vote against the ruling dispensation. Majority of such names are going to be from Muslim and Dalit communities from lower strata of the society. The names of these people were identified along with the names of ‘illegal’ immigrants in Assam, who government claims had sneaked in from Bangladesh. NRC draft report is out now making it easy to identify the locals and immigrants.
Lakhs of people have been marked as not-citizens-of-India. Opposition parties claim the main agenda of the government in this case is to keep those people away who are presumably against the ruling BJP, more than identifying the foreigners living in India. Assam is shaken by the kind of mistakes that have been noticed in NRC draft. Some people have even committed suicide over gory future. Protests are being carried out against this measure. Many Indian citizens have also been named as immigrants.
Unfortunately this pattern is being replicated in Karnataka too, and has already been deemed a partial success. Among the 2.8 lakh applications submitted to be included in the voters’ list, more than 62% have been rejected for reasons that the applicants are not Indian citizens. And majority among these are Dalits and Muslims apart from lower caste people. Many don’t even know their applications have been rejected. Many with valid Aadhar card and electricity bill have also been rejected with the aggrieved not even being given a choice of questioning this rejection of their applications. The deserving people should not be denied participation in democracy, is the core value of the constitution. People of this country have at least a right to question why their application was rejected. And the officers owe them an answer.
The government has all the rights to make arrangements to deport illegal immigrants from any other country into any part of the nation, including Karnataka. There should be no compromise on that. There are charges that Bangladeshis have made Karnataka their home. But many people have encouraged them to render their services because Bangladeshi workers are available for lesser labour charges over local ones. They work in estates and coffee plantations. If this charge of Bangladeshis having entered Karnataka is true, Coffee and tea plantations should be raided and the labourers from Bangladesh, if found, have to be deported to their lands. But in their pretext, it is rather unfair to cheat the locals. If people are coming to Karnataka from Bangladesh, this is nothing but a breach of security and intelligence. Illegal activities in the border are aiding this.
Hence, officers who allow such pilferage of people across borders should be identified and should be penalized. But at the same time, denying rightful citizenship to someone with all documents and due identity as required by law, would be to deny him/her the right to live. Officers who’d do this live right among us. Their job is to keep the dissident voices out to win elections for their favourite people.
A coalition government which claims to be secular has occupied the office today. The government would obviously know by now that the names have been deleted. The government by now has to make efforts to understand who is behind this and who would the act finally benefit. Instead of regretting over the spilt milk, the government should immediately pay attention to undue amendments and removal of names from the list of the state.
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Efforts on to bring Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna back to India: Home Minister
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Friday said efforts are on to bring Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of sexual abuse against women, back to India.
He also asserted that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case was functioning efficiently.
The 33-year-old Prajwal, who is the grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former PM H D Deve Gowda, is facing charges of multiple instances of sexually abusing women.
The scandal has raised a political storm with the ruling Congress and BJP-JD(S) engaged in a slugfest.
Prajwal reportedly left for Germany on April 27 and is still at large.
He was BJP-JD(S) alliance's candidate from Hassan Lok Sabha segment, which went to polls in the first phase on April 26.
"Procedures are on, until we secure him, bring him back here and take action in accordance with law, they will continue. We will neither slow it nor stop it," Parameshwara told reporters on questions about the Interpol's Blue Corner Notice that was issued against Prajwal.
On BJP alleging that the government was "responsible" for Prajwal's "escape" from the country, the Minister said, "They will say it, they have to say such things. They cannot say the government is doing a good job. But we have a responsibility as a government. Such incidents cannot be taken lightly. We will do our job."
Accusing the Congress government of trying to tarnish the reputation of Deve Gowda's family instead of ensuring justice to victims of alleged sex videos scandal case involving Prajwal, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy had recently alleged that every bit of information on the investigation is being sent to a Congress MLA of Mandya district, but not the Home Minister.
Reacting to this, Parameshwara said: "Kumaraswamy is also well aware, several things we cannot bring to the public domain, because the investigation is on. Who will brief the Mandya MLA? Making such allegations is easy. We all have responsibility and we are functioning with responsibility, and we are not under any compulsions."
"I want to tell him (Kumaraswamy) that SIT is working efficiently, and whatever they have to brief me or the Chief Minister, they will brief. Let there be no doubts about it," he said.
