The Opposition is all set to make the voter list revision exercise a key issue this WInter Session of Parliament. This does not suit the government for many reasons. The main one being that since this is an exercise carried out by the Election Commission (EC), the Parliament would be the wrong place to discuss the issue as the EC is not present and cannot partake in the proceedings of the House.
And if the government speaks in defence of the SIR then it would lend credence to the Opposition’s claim that the EC was acting at the behest of the Modi led government. This in fact is precisely the optics that the Opposition wants to send to the people by insisting on the debate. The government would prefer the parliament focuses on some key reform bills it is keen to implement as well as holding a day long discussion on Vande Mataram. The latter fits in very well with the BJPs narrative of nationalism and it hopes that this would occupy the mindspace and the headlines for the rest of the session, taking the heat away fromSIR.
But interestingly with elections coming up in West Bengal and later on in Uttar Pradesh as well, two key INDIA bloc partners are in sync with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the SIR issue and seem adamant to keep the heat on the government. THe plight of the Block Level Officers (BLOs) which are mainly teachers and banking officials from the public sector who have been deployed by the EC to prepare the voter lists – in addition to their normal jobs – is also an issue that the Opposition is keen to raise and one that could cause much discomfiture to the government.
There are stories of harassment by that the BLOs are facing in their line of work with as many as 22 suicides reported in the last 25 days. The majority of these cases are from Madhya Pradesh followed by UP and Gujarat. The onus of preparing the voter lists is now on the BLOs who are finding it difficult to trace families and antecedents of the voters, in addition to carrying on their normal work duties. But, is the government listening ? There seems to be a tearing hurry to prepare the new voter lists before the next round of assembly polls. This is giving fodder to the Opposition’s narrative questioning the government – or the EC’s – motive behind the SIR.
To take on the Opposition, the Prime Minister is leading from the front accusing the Congress and its allies of focusing more on drama than delivery. He also mocked the INDIA bloc for its poor electoral performance in the recent Bihar elections, This has not unnaturally gone down well, and got the Opposition’s hackles up. It has also made any attempts to establish peace between the two camps all the more difficult. Expect very little legislative work to be done on the floor of the house as politics and the ensuing blame game takes over.
Given this and given the fact that the last session of Parliament was also stalled on the SIR issue, one can only be glad that this is going to be a very short session of Parliament. Since our MPs are in no mood to work, atleast let’s try and save the taxpayer’s money. Some silve lining for you and me.
