“You cannot erase the votes of those who have no voice,” he said SIR Row: Actor-activist Prakash Raj at ‘Janata Nadige’, a rally organised by the Dakshina Kannada District Joint Forum of Secular Parties and Organisations, on Saturday.
Mangaluru: Actor and activist Prakash Raj launched a scathing attack on the central govt and the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging widespread irregularities in the electoral rolls and accusing the administration of trying to suppress dissent through police action.
Let the BJP leaders show where those infiltrators are now,” he said, questioning the need for the ECI spending crores of rupees in the name of special intensive revision (SIR). “BJP leaders repeatedly asserted that thousands of undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan had entered India, including Dakshina Kannada. However, the list submitted by the Election Commission reportedly contained only two women from Bangladesh and Pakistan, who had come here after marriage.
More than 70 lakh living voters in Karnataka continued to face removal due to ‘absent’, ‘shifted’, and ‘logical discrepancies’ classifications, even after accounting for roughly 20 to 22 lakh duplicate and deceased entries, according to Prakash Raj.
“The SIR exercise in the state turned out to be one of the largest deletions of voters in the country’s electoral history,” he said. He condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for describing protesting youth as “Dimagi Naxals”. The SIR exercise affected marginalised communities, including Dalits, Muslims, Christians, Adivasis and economically weaker sections, he said and reiterated his commitment to stand up for those voiceless voters.
Demanding action against chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, he criticised the govt for its growing crackdown on peaceful protesters and young activists. “You cannot erase the votes of those who have no voice. The public has woken up to this vote theft [’Vote Chori’], and we will leverage our constitutional and democratic rights to bring down this government,” he added.