SIR needed every five years to check influx: Assam CM

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to check the influx of Bangladeshi nationals every five years. The request, made amid protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, was justified by Sarma as a response to a "demographic invasion" in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.

Sarma accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of attempting to blackmail democratic institutions by targeting the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India (ECI). He challenged Gandhi to resign and demanded that Congress governments formed during Gyanesh Kumar's tenure also resign. Sarma cited former Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, who reportedly alerted Parliament in the late 1990s about the inclusion of 30 lakh foreigners in Assam's voters' list.

Sarma argued that continuous demographic shifts in the four States pointed to ongoing infiltration from Bangladesh, emphasizing that without a national SIR, it would be impossible to remove the names of large numbers of foreigners from electoral rolls. He accused Congress of acting under external pressures and suggested that Gandhi was destroying democratic institutions by exposing them to anarchy.

Sarma also accused Gandhi and Congress of double standards in election processes, comparing the scrutiny of his elections to those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.