Actor and Rajya Sabha MP Kamal Haasan on Wednesday raised serious concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, warning that nearly one crore electors could be declared “living dead” on paper.
Making his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, Haasan said the revision exercise risked disenfranchising genuine voters ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections.
‘Spell-check story of the living dead’
Referring to the SIR process already carried out in Bihar, Haasan criticised the Election Commission’s use of centralised software to flag voters over what he described as minor “logical discrepancies”, including spelling mismatches in names and addresses.
“We want to cast our vote, but commissions are checking our right to vote,” he said, adding that while modern literature and the internet forgive spelling errors in favour of content, the Election Commission of India appeared not to.
“Bihar has already become a land of many living dead. We don’t want this disease to spread across the country,” Haasan said, cautioning that Tamil Nadu could soon see nearly one crore voters wrongly struck off electoral records.
Draft roll figures raise alarm
According to the draft electoral roll published in December, about 97 lakh electors in Tamil Nadu were marked as dead, shifted, absent or registered elsewhere. A further 1.70 crore voters were flagged for notices seeking clarification. The final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on February 14, with Assembly elections due soon after.
Haasan urged Parliament to act swiftly, stressing that democracy must never override the rights of citizens. “The juggernaut called democratic India will roll on, but it should never roll over people,” he said.
Other voices in debate
During the same discussion, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda highlighted the importance of quiet diplomacy and concluded his speech by urging urgent solutions to Karnataka’s drinking water challenges.