Highlights of HM Amit Shah's speech in Parliament on 'SIR'

New Delhi, Dec 10: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday delivered an emphatic address in Parliament on the Selective Identification and Removal (SIR) process, accusing the opposition of spreading “one-sided lies” over the past four months to mislead the public.

Defending SIR as a constitutional and essential mechanism to maintain the integrity of India’s voter rolls, Shah outlined the government’s rationale, attacked the Congress for alleged double standards, and framed the sanitisation of electoral lists as a national security requirement. Below are the key highlights from his speech.

Here are the highlights:

*The opposition has been spreading one-sided lies about SIR for the last four months in an attempt to mislead the people of the country.

* SIR means deleting names in cases of death or duplication, adding names when someone turns 18, and identifying and deleting infiltrators from the voter list.

* To ensure that infiltrators do not elect the PM and CMs and make the country unsafe, santisation of the voter list is essential — and this very process is called SIR.

* The Congress party’s defeats are not due to EVMs or voter fraud, but due to its leadership, and one day Congress workers will certainly question the leadership.

* EVMs were introduced during the Congress rule; the first Lok Sabha election using EVMs was in 2004, which the Congress won. Now that they are losing, they are blaming EVMs for their defeat.

* Despite talking about EVMs and voter fraud for 11 years, the Congress party has not given a single suggestion to the Election Commission on election reforms.

* There are certain families in our country who are engaged in voter fraud for generations.

* Three historic instances of voter fraud- First: Nehru Ji becoming PM despite Sardar Patel Ji receiving more votes, Second: Overturning the High Court verdict that had annulled Indira Gandhi’s election, Third: As per a recently filed petition, Sonia Gandhi becoming a voter even before becoming an Indian citizen.

* Whether the voter list is new or old, the defeat of the Congress and the INDI alliance is certain.

* BJP’s policy on infiltrators is: Detect, Delete, and Deport; whereas the opposition wants to normalise infiltrators, legitimise them, and formalise them by adding them to the voter list.

* The Congress did not boycott the Lok Sabha when Nehru Ji, Indira Ji, Rajiv Ji, or Sonia Ji were discussed, but they boycotted the House when the issue of infiltrators was raised.

* RSS ideology is to sacrifice for the nation, take the country to the pinnacle of prosperity, and uphold the banner of India’s culture.

* The country has already been partitioned once on demographic grounds, and to ensure future generations do not face the same situation again, SIR is necessary.

* The opposition opposes surgical strikes, airstrikes, removal of Article 370, construction of the Ram Temple, removal of infiltrators, the CAA, and the abolition of triple talaq — this is why we win.

* Prime Minister Modi Ji is the PM who has travelled the most and worked the hardest in the history of India.

* The real reason behind the opposition’s sorrow is the political loss they have suffered because of SIR.

* For the opposition, the voter list is “correct” when they win and “incorrect” when they lose — their double standards will no longer work.

* SIR is a constitutional process, and by questioning it, the opposition is tarnishing India’s democratic image globally.

* It is the Modi government that included the Leader of the Opposition in the committee for appointing the Election Commissioner; during the Congress era, only the Prime Minister made this decision.

* Even if the opposition boycotts the House 200 times, we will not allow even a single infiltrator to get voting rights.

* Rahul Ji held a ‘Save Infiltrators’ march in Bihar — he was wiped out there; TMC is protecting infiltrators in Bengal, and even there a BJP government will be formed