BHUBANESWAR: Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Saturday voiced strong reservations over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, cautioning against the exercise being used to target Muslim voters by portraying them as "Bangladeshi infiltrators".
Speaking at the 14th edition of the Odisha Literary Festival (OLF) here in a freewheeling conversation with Kaveree Bamzai, Quraishi said the ongoing debate over electoral rolls and citizenship had serious implications for India’s democracy and secular character.
Quraishi has previously criticised the SIR process for being focused on "exclusion", arguing that it had disrupted the conduct of free and fair elections. He has questioned the rationale of making millions of voters furnish documents and undergo an elaborate verification exercise in the name of detecting foreigners.
His remarks came against the backdrop of concerns that Muslims could disproportionately face exclusion from electoral rolls amid political rhetoric linking undocumented migrants with the community. Quraishi has maintained that being registered as a voter is a constitutional right and should not be treated as a favour granted by the Election Commission.
Reflecting on his own identity and his long association with public life, Quraishi said India had traditionally been "the most secular country in the world". The decision at partition to create Pakistan on religious lines, he said, was a choice made at that time, whereas India chose to remain secular.
He, however, expressed concern that secularism was currently under threat, while hoping that the present phase would prove transient and that the "soul of India" would ultimately reassert itself.
Quraishi also recalled his meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat as part of a Muslim delegation that sought to engage with what they perceived as the source of the hate discourse against Muslims. The delegation, he said, wanted to understand and address the narrative that had contributed to growing communal polarisation.
Asked about the possibility of taking up the issue directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Quraishi indicated that dialogue remained important in addressing concerns over what he described as a hate campaign against Muslims.