The Congress on Wednesday posed three questions to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his criticism of the opposition's 'vote chori' protests, asking how many “ghuspaithiye” (infiltrators) had been identified, deleted from electoral rolls and deported following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the "ghuspaithiya" argument is invoked to divert attention from the real issue of people being stripped of their right to vote.
"The reality is that the architects of the 'Shah Instigated Removal' (SIR) exercise are repeatedly trying to divert attention from the real issue by invoking the infiltrator argument. Whereas the truth is that the desperate duo of PM-HM has stripped nearly 14 crore Indians of their constitutional right to vote," the post in Hindi said.
He further posed three questions to Shah.
"Here are three very simple and straightforward questions to the Union Home Minister, who has been defending SIR: 1. How many ghuspaithiye were detected? 2. How many ghuspaithiye were deleted? 3. How many ghuspaithiye were deported?" Ramesh asked.
The Congress leader said 100 crore Indians have been put through the SIR process and they deserved to know the results.
"Is he suggesting that these 14 crore Indians are ghuspaithiye? Has there been a massive increase in the number of infiltrators in the country under his oversight as Home Minister?" Ramesh asked.
In his first remarks on the ongoing protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR exercise, Amit Shah on Tuesday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the opposition to be ready for a "crushing defeat" again in 2029 as people are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and claimed that the country can see through the Leader of Opposition's "plan" to get infiltrators registered as voters.
In a hard-hitting statement, Shah said that while the SIR started in 2024, the Congress has been losing continuously ever since Rahul Gandhi took over the party leadership.
Criticising Gandhi, he said people of India know the Leader of Opposition's plans of "getting infiltrators registered as voters".
(With inputs from PTI)