From 'Vote Chori' to 'Ghuspetiyan': Controversial terms that fueled 2025 political slugfest

New Delhi: On every Indians’ lips, some words found frequent expression in 2025 – all had deeply dividing political connotations. Both the ruling and Opposition sides sparred over it.

SIR: A word otherwise used to address a teacher or a superior found a new meaning when the Election Commission announced a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls on June 24. First in Bihar and then in 12 states and union territories, the pruning of the electoral rolls saw the EC facing accusation of disenfranchising people. Opposition hit the streets with some NDA partners raising some concerns while BJP staunchly supported EC. In the second phase, a number of BLOs died, amid claims of workload taking a toll.

Vote Chori: The protest against SIR donated ‘vote chori’ to the country’s political lexicon in July. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi popularised it with his three press conferences, finding a Brazilian woman’s photo in rolls and UP politicians becoming simultaneous voters in Haryana among others. Rahul went on to allege that BJP managed to form the government through ‘vote chori’ in around 100 seats. EC was accused of enabling the BJP. But questions were raised over ‘vote chori’ as a successful poll campaign tool.

VB G RAM G: Towards the end of the year and out of the blue came invocation of Ram as an acronym in a law that replaced a rural employment guarantee law named after Mahatma Gandhi. More than the name change, Opposition and activists found fault with the change in contours of the law to a supply-driven scheme in which states have to shell out more money. They fear it may eventually kill the rights-based scheme.

Operation Sindoor: The word smelt revenge for a dastardly terror strike in Pahalgam. Feminists deplored the coinage while the Opposition found fault with the government over what led to the terror strike as well as the sudden halt in military hostilities. Congress faced some embarrassment as the government nominated its leaders to delegations to foreign countries and some of its leaders defied the party to be part of the government initiative.

AQI: Air Quality Index suddenly became a talk of the dinner table as air pollution rose in Delhi and elsewhere. Parliament did not take up the issue despite it being listed for discussion. Pointed questions on who is responsible and what governments at the Centre and states did not do went unanswered while citizens struggled to breathe.

‘Ghuspetiyan’ (Infiltrator): With the SIR exercise and upcoming elections in Assam and West Bengal, this was one of the words that was used the most. If the EC unofficially spoke about finding out a number of people from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar in Bihar rolls, no numbers were given at the end. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are continuously raising it in Assam and Bengal, as polls are nearing.