PUCL Uttar Pradesh: Calling those unable to be a part of the SIR list “infiltrators” and sending them to detention centers is a violation of civil rights
On December 7, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath issued a letter to the public through all newspapers, in which he referred to the special intensive voter revision process and spoke about identifying Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators in the state and placing them in detention centers. He made this statement while quoting Chief Justice Suryakant’s remark during the Supreme Court hearing against the special intensive voter revision. During the hearing, Chief Justice Suryakant had remarked: “We cannot roll out a red carpet for infiltrators, can we?”
PUCL Uttar Pradesh considers such a statement by the Chief Minister, made through a public letter, as divisive, spreading enmity among people, and unconstitutional. It is also an open declaration that the purpose of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) is not to add voters, but to remove them based on papers.
PUCL Uttar Pradesh does not agree with Justice Suryakant’s oral remark, but we believe that the context of the remark was different. Using it as a shield to declare citizens unable to show papers, citizens unable to join due to technical reasons, and citizens cut off by officials due to social hostility (which is a possibility) as “infiltrators” and announcing to send them to detention centers, presenting them negatively without investigation, and creating an antisocial atmosphere against them is unconstitutional action.
PUCL Uttar Pradesh strongly condemns this unconstitutional statement of the Chief Minister, in which those excluded have already been declared Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators without investigation. In fact, through this, he has also declared that minorities excluded in the SIR process will be considered the same.
Earlier, the SIR conducted in Bihar proved that this process did not identify infiltrators, but excluded poor people living on the streets and in slums, labourers, those without ancestral records, without homes, without education, and therefore without age documents. They were deprived of their rights as citizens on a large scale. This could have been even larger had the Supreme Court not allowed “Aadhaar” to be included among the documents. In addition, people who had migrated outside Bihar for work were also excluded in this process. Should all these excluded people be denied citizenship and considered “infiltrators”? In reality, declaring a voter non-citizen under such a technical process does not mean that the person is an infiltrator or criminal, but rather indicates the limitations and flaws of the process, which the central and state governments continuously deny. Declaring any citizen, rich or poor, an infiltrator through this technical method is a violation of their human rights and Article 21 of the Constitution. Using this violation to spread enmity through statements is also illegal.
Chief Minister Adityanath has ordered detention centers to be opened in every district for infiltrators and is using this for self-praise. Earlier, we had seen the experience of detention centers created during the NRC in Assam, where citizens of Assam themselves were detained and harassed due to a missing paper or technical error. Is the same not being repeated here? During the ongoing SIR, reports are coming in that BLOs (Booth Level Officers) are under such pressure that they are committing suicide, because they are forced to complete this work in extremely short time. How can anyone expect that there will be no mistakes in this? In fact, given the way this work is being carried out, it can be said with certainty that there is a high possibility of large-scale errors. On this basis, declaring excluded people as infiltrators and announcing to send them to detention centers – is this right? On the contrary, this creates tension and panic among poor citizens of the state and those excluded due to technical reasons. This situation is dangerous for the state; it is an attack on citizens.
PUCL Uttar Pradesh strongly condemns the Chief Minister’s statement and the order to open detention centers in every district, and demands that it be withdrawn.
PUCL Uttar Pradesh also demands that the order to open detention centers in every district be revoked.
PUCL Uttar Pradesh further demands that the SIR should only remove the names of deceased voters and add the names of newly eligible voters. Its purpose should not be to search for infiltrators and deprive people of citizenship. This must be immediately canceled.
T.D. Bhaskar, PUCL UP President
Chittajit Mitra, PUCL UP General Secretary