Overview
- Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha branded the Special Intensive Revision as “Selective Ideological Removal” and questioned its transparency and legal basis.
- Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal defended the exercise as consistent with Ambedkar’s principle of one person, one vote, one value.
- Responding to Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Amit Shah framed the effort as a push to “detect, delete and deport” infiltrators, while the EC maintained it is an administrative cleanup.
- An earlier SIR in Bihar struck more than 6.5 million names from the rolls, prompting millions of complaints and legal challenges, with the EC attributing most deletions to deaths or migration.
- West Bengal has become the flashpoint, with the state government vowing to resist deletions, local reports linking a death to SIR-related fear, draft rolls set for December 16, and deadlines extended into early 2026.