CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, and actor-activist Prakash Raj on Thursday joined hands against the SIR and staged a protest here demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation
BENGALURU — CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, and actor-activist Prakash Raj on Thursday joined hands against the SIR and staged a protest here demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation and the scrapping of revision exercise of electoral rolls.
Dipke, addressing a protest christened 'people's tribunal,' held by civil societies and the CJP alleged that deletions of names of voters under the SIR were aimed at disenfranchising those opposed to the BJP and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the EC of "undermining" democracy.
The protest was held at the Freedom Park here.
Dipke claimed that people whose names had been deleted from the electoral rolls were present at the agitation to demonstrate that they were alive.
"Narendra Modi became Prime Minister by deleting and stealing votes," he alleged.
Dipke said, "People who were declared dead are standing here alive. So the death that has taken place is not the death of these people. It is the death of the democracy of this country."
The CJP founder alleged that Election Commission officials, including Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, had deleted the votes of people complying with the alleged directions of PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Dipke claimed that 13 crore votes had been deleted across India and around one crore in Karnataka, saying the figure represented 13 to 14 per cent of the registered vote share.
Such deletions had helped the BJP win states it could not have won even during the peak of the Modi wave. Dipke raised slogans targeting CEC Gyanesh Kumar, saying, "Now, Gyanu, your turn has come" to quit following Dharmendra Pradhan who stepped down as Union Minister.
The RSS ideology did not believe in an inclusive India or the philosophies of Dr B R Ambedkar and 'Periyar' EV Ramasamy, and instead it invoked Nathuram Godse, the CJP founder claimed.
"We have to fight against that ideology to save our democracy and to save our country," Dipke said.
Describing Mahatma Gandhi as the soul of India, Ambedkar as its backbone and Jawaharlal Nehru as its mind, Dipke said the country's foundation was laid by the three leaders.
He said Modi could not compare himself with them and alleged that he wanted to remain in power longer than Nehru by deleting votes.
He praised Nehru for conducting the first general election in the country and extending voting rights to people who, he said, had neither knowledge of elections nor documents.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, in his address, sought the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and alleged that there was "zero transparency and zero accountability from the EC," over the SIR exercise.
The YouTuber alleged that 'Vote Chori' (vote theft) concerned every citizen irrespective of their political affiliation.
"Whether you vote for the BJP, whether you vote for the Congress, or whether you support any other party, this is an issue that concerns every citizen of the country," he said.
Rathee stressed that his participation was not on behalf of any political party and said the issue should concern those supporting BJP as well.
Referring to West Bengal, Rathee claimed that around 70,000 voters were removed from the electoral rolls before the Assembly elections and were added after the election results.
"They were real, genuine voters. They were on the electoral rolls before the elections and they were on the electoral rolls afterwards, but they were not on the rolls at the time of voting," he claimed.
In Bihar, Rathee claimed around 65 lakh names were removed from the electoral rolls and alleged that the Election Commission did not disclose the names and addresses of those affected until the Supreme Court ordered that the information be made public.
"So until someone tells the Election Commission to disclose such information, the EC does not reveal anything on its own. There is no transparency. Zero transparency and zero accountability," he alleged.
"That is why I say: 'Vote thief, leave the seat.' That is why we say that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar must resign," he said.
Actor-activist Prakash Raj demanded scrapping the SIR exercise, alleging it was not merely about deletion of votes, but an attack on the dignity and rights of citizens.
CEC Gyanesh Kumar is "acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah," he alleged.
Raj said the issue was not simply about the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, but about scrapping the SIR.
"Our fight is not merely for the resignation of Kumar. Even if he goes, another person, Agyanesh Kumar, may come into his place. That's not what we want. We want the SIR to be scrapped totally," he said.
He alleged that the names of the tribal people, the poor, Muslims and other minorities had been removed from the electoral rolls.
"They cannot eliminate citizens physically, so they are trying to eliminate them from the electoral rolls," Raj alleged.