Trinamool, the CPM and the Congress lauded the Supreme Court on Thursday for allowing Bihar voters the Aadhaar option to challenge the deletion of their names under the poll panel’s special intensive revision (SIR), while the BJP was predictably caught sulking.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, amid a scathing offensive on the saffron regime over its “Bengali-phobia” and the “backdoor NRC” that she alleges the SIR to be, expressed relief and hope.
“The Supreme Court ruling has brought us hope. We welcome it…. I am now more confident that people’s rights would not be snatched. We are very much in this fight, our lawyers are part of this. This begins with Bihar, Bengal will follow… we will be heard as well,” said the Trinamool chief at a Behala event on the eve of Independence Day.
“No one has the right to take away citizenship,” she added.
Mamata reminded the audience that she was among the first leaders in the country to identify the SIR for what it really was and call out the BJP and the Election Commission of India on it.
“In the name of SIR, sinister efforts are underway to introduce the (saffron citizenship matrix)…. Now everyone sees the reality of it,” she said in the evening during an hour-long speech hailing Bengal and its role in the Renaissance, the freedom struggle and post-Independence nation-building, and attacking the saffron ecosystem for its alleged persecution of Bengali-speaking Indians in states it wields power.
“Thankfully the Supreme Court said this today…. We have cent per cent Aadhaar card coverage here. The Supreme Court has made the Aadhaar card inclusion. Bengal’s lawyers were present and have fought well,” said Mamata, who has been calling the Nirvachan Sadan’s SIR thrust a “conspiracy to disenfranchise” the poor and the marginalised who she says are unlikely to vote the BJP.
“Under Smt. @MamataOfficial’s leadership, we will crush every attempt to disenfranchise citizens or smuggle NRC through the backdoor. Our MP Smt. @MahuaMoitra has taken the fight to the Hon’ble Supreme Court against @ECISVEEP’s dubious Special Intensive Revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls,” Trinamool said in a statement on X before Mamata spoke on it.
“In a scathing interim order, the Bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Surya Kant has directed the ECI to publish a searchable, booth-wise list of excluded voters’ names along with reasons for their deletion on district electoral officers’ websites,” it added. “The Court has further ruled that any aggrieved person can file objections with a copy of their Aadhaar, which shall be treated as valid proof of identity and residence. This is a landmark win in our fight to protect democracy and the people’s right to vote.”
On this key issue, she found the Congress and the CPM —otherwise her fierce foes in Bengal — on the same page.
“This is a landmark ruling, a major step in the right direction. The wrongs of this EC under the BJP-led Centre will be corrected, one by one, by the Supreme Court. That is our hope...,” said the Congress chief spokesperson for Bengal, Soumya Aich Roy.
CPM state secretary Md Salim said the ruling was about transparency. “What the Supreme Court has done today is to remind the commission that its actions should be transparent beyond doubt,” added Salim.
BJP Bengal chief Samik Bhattacharya said many Aadhaar cards were fake. “If the Supreme Court has said something related to accepting Aadhaar, it has not said anything about accepting fake Aadhaar cards. Many Aadhaar cards found across India and Bengal are fake, so Aadhaar cards will soon become irrelevant,” he claimed.