Bengaluru SIR Protest | Bengaluru / Hyderabad, Oct. 8: YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and Actor-activist Prakash Raj joined a protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengaluru on Thursday.
The protest was held at Freedom Park under the banner of a “people’s tribunal” organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and civil society groups.
The protesters demanded that the SIR exercise be scrapped and called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign over alleged irregularities.
Women, students and other participants gathered at the venue and raised slogans against the electoral roll revision exercise. Police made security arrangements to prevent any untoward incident.
Bengaluru SIR Protest | Dhruv Rathee, Prakash Raj Raise SIR Concerns
Prakash Raj alleged that the SIR exercise was not merely about deleting names from electoral rolls. He described it as an issue concerning citizens’ voting rights and dignity at Bengaluru SIR Protest.
He also alleged that names of tribal people, poor citizens, Muslims and other minorities had been removed from electoral rolls.
Raj further alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar was acting under the influence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. These were political allegations made at the protest and have not been established as findings by an election authority or court.
Raj said the protest was not limited to seeking Kumar’s resignation. He called for the complete withdrawal of the SIR exercise.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke also accused the Election Commission and the central government of undermining democracy. He alleged that voter deletions were aimed at disenfranchising people opposed to the BJP.
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Dhruv Rathee criticised what he described as a lack of transparency and accountability from the Election Commission over the SIR process.
Rathee said he had not come to the protest for “regime change” and focused his remarks on concerns surrounding the electoral process.
The organisers said the people’s tribunal was intended to hear accounts from people across Karnataka who claimed they had been affected by the SIR exercise.
The programme was also linked to a planned “Chappal protest” in solidarity with women, according to organisers.
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