Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Rising incidents of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) engaged in Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls dying by suicide or other issues in the past three weeks have triggered a controversy with top Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Sunday objecting to lives being lost to "hasty" and "forced" implementation of the exercise.
While Kharge said the BJP's "vote chori" (vote theft) has now taken a "deadly turn" as BLOs and Assistant BLOs are driven to suicide as they are "overburdened with workload", Rahul said16 BLOs have lost their lives to heart attacks, stress and suicides and SIR is "no reform, it is an imposed tyranny".
Sharing a news report of deaths of 16 BLOs in six states in past 19 days, Kharge said the numbers are "far higher than what is reported, which is extremely alarming” while Rahul claimed, "chaos has been unleashed across the country" and the results were deaths of people
"The ECI has created such a system where citizens have to flip through thousands of scanned pages of a 22-year-old voter list just to find themselves. The intent is clear -- the right voters get exhausted and give up, and vote theft continues unabated, Rahul said questioning why the poll body is still stuck on "erecting a jungle of paper" when India builds cutting-edge software for the world.
"If the intent were pure, the list would be digital, searchable, and machine-readable - and the ECI would take adequate time to focus on transparency and accountability, instead of blindly pushing work in a 30-day frenzy," he said.
He claimed that the SIR is a "calculated ploy" where citizens are being harassed and the deaths of BLOs from "unnecessary pressure are dismissed as collateral damage". He added, "this is not a failure, it's a conspiracy - a sacrifice of democracy to protect those in power."
Asking who will deliver justice to these families, Kharge posted on 'X', "the BJP is busy lapping up the cream of power through theft, while the Election Commission stands as a mute spectator watching the spectacle."
He said the "hasty, forced implementation" of SIR "without any planning brings back memories" of demonetisation and the COVID-19 lockdown. Abusing power to force institutions into suicides, tearing the Constitution to shreds, and weakening democracy—this is the consequence of the BJP's hunger for power, he alleged.
"Enough now!! If we still don't wake up, no one can save the last pillars of democracy from collapsing. Those who remain silent on SIR and vote theft are culpable in the deaths of these innocent BLOs. Raise your voice, save democracy" he added.
Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also raised the issue and wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Media report showed that 16 BLOs or Assistant BLOs have died by suicide or due to health complications since November 4 when the house-to-house enumeration started while some others are hospitalised, claiming workload and rising tension due to the deadlines set.
Four deaths each were reported from Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat while there are at least three cases in West Bengal. Rajasthan reported two such cases while Kerala and Tamil Nadu also had one each.
Some notes recovered from those died by suicide said that they were taking their own life due to work pressure. Families of some others who passed away claimed that their family members were under a lot of pressure to meet targets and deadlines set by their seniors.