New Delhi: People Against SIR, a platform of organisations and activists campaigning against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, on Thursday announced nationwide protests from November 26 to December 20, with a call to reclaim Delhi's Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
The platform said the campaign would include demonstrations on Constitution Day on November 26, mass gatherings on Human Rights Day on December 10, public meetings and rallies across states, and booth-level meetings.
The campaign will end on December 20, when the platform will appeal to President Droupadi Murmu to ensure restoration of voting rights before any elections are announced.
"Every street will be turned into Jantar Mantar," the platform said, calling for the re-notification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site.
The announcement was made after a meeting of the working group of People Against SIR, which discussed the implementation of decisions taken by its National Coordination Committee to intensify the campaign for scrapping the SIR exercise.
The platform said the Election Commission's recent decisions to provide another opportunity to voters left out of the draft electoral rolls in seven states and Union Territories were belated measures that did not address its concerns over the SIR process.
Activist Anjali Bharadwaj, speaking at a press conference, said the Election Commission had taken another U-turn by allowing voters wrongly marked as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) to submit enumeration forms instead of having to apply afresh through Form 6.
"The Election Commission has clearly said that those whose names were wrongly deleted will not have to fill Form 6. They will be given enumeration forms. They will have to give a statement, and the BLOs will verify it. It is the Election Commission's responsibility to ensure that these forms reach the people," she said.
Bharadwaj questioned why crores of people who had earlier filled Form 6 should have to bear the consequences of the process followed by the poll body.
She also cited an example of Muslim voters allegedly being deleted in Mustafabad of Delhi using Form 7, and demanded that details of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters' names across the country be made public.
"Our demand remains that the SIR should be completely scrapped. Action should be taken against Gyanesh Kumar and others responsible," she said.
Actor and activist Prakash Raj said protests over SIR will continue, as he also alleged that the BJP-led government at the Union level came to power "illegally", questioning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"This is an illegal government. They gave the call for '400 paar', but they got only 240. They misused the EC even before SIR came," he said.
Raj questioned the claims about three crore infiltrators and said the government should produce evidence to support them. He also alleged that those questioning the government were being branded "urban Naxals".
"We have decided that this is a long battle. All organisations will come together with evidence. We will continue to educate people across the country," he said.
Mehr Pasricha of CJP said the right to vote was among the most important rights and expressed solidarity with the campaign. "This is perhaps the most important fight," she said.
"The CJP stands in full solidarity and lends its support to this movement," she added.
Joint secretary of JNU Students' Union and AISA leader Danish said people had been taking to the streets over the issue of alleged vote theft but were facing police action, detention and notices.
"You have tried to save Gyanesh Kumar, but you will not succeed. We will not go back until accountability is fixed," she said, adding that public meetings and demonstrations would be organised at different places in the coming days.
Speaking to PTI after the press conference, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader P Krishna Prasad said a march to reclaim Jantar Mantar would be held on November 26. He added that apart from the protests in Delhi, the issue would be taken to booth level.
The working group said demonstrations on November 26 would focus on the right to vote and the right to livelihood, with participation from farmers, workers, agricultural workers, Adivasis, Dalits, minorities, students, youth and women. The programme would begin with the reading of the Preamble to the Constitution.
On December 10, the platform plans to organise mass gatherings across the country to assert the right to peaceful protest and demand that Jantar Mantar be re-notified as a designated protest site.
Between November 26 and December 20, it will organise public meetings and rallies and conduct audits of electoral rolls across states. These audits would also form the basis of a ground-level awareness campaign on alleged wrongful deletions.
On December 20, booth-level meetings will adopt resolutions urging the President to scrap the SIR and restore every citizen's right to vote before any elections are announced.
The platform also said it would take up alleged police excesses and restrictions on peaceful protests with people's representatives, governance institutions, the judiciary and political parties.
It also demanded restoration of every citizen's right to vote, elections through paper ballots and comprehensive electoral reforms, including proportional representation, curbs on money and muscle power and legalising state funding of elections.
The platform appealed to democratic organisations and citizens to join the campaign.