New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday slammed the Congress after Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that only voters registered in Karnataka during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) would benefit from welfare schemes of the state, alleging that his remarks have exposed the party’s “hypocrisy” on the SIR issue.
If SIR is illegitimate, as the Congress has alleged, why use it as the gateway to welfare, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said and claimed that the Congress’ objection to the intensive revision of electoral rolls was “not driven by principles but politics”.
The reaction came a day after Shivakumar, while urging voters in the state to actively participate in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, said that some states have already stopped extending benefits to people who were not eligible to be on the electoral rolls.
“If a person is no longer a voter here, why should we continue giving guarantee benefits?… We intend that the benefits should go only to the people of our state,” Shivakumar said. “The right to vote is the right to live,” he said.
Malviya said the Congress “cannot have it both ways”, alleging that while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calls the SIR a “citizenship test” and attacks it as unconstitutional, the Karnataka government is relying on the same process to decide the distribution of welfare schemes.
“The Congress’s hypocrisy stands exposed. When the Election Commission conducts the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to ensure only eligible citizens are on the electoral roll, Rahul Gandhi calls it a ‘citizenship test’ and attacks it as unconstitutional,” Malviya said in a post on X.
“But in Karnataka, CM D K Shivakumar says the very same SIR electoral roll will determine who gets government schemes, guarantees, pensions and welfare benefits,” he added.
Malviya alleged that the conflicting stands of Gandhi and the Karnataka chief minister have exposed the Congress and shown that its objection is driven by politics rather than principle.
“So which Congress should India believe? If SIR is illegitimate, why use it as the gateway to welfare? If it is reliable enough to decide who receives taxpayer-funded benefits, why oppose it when the Election Commission uses it to protect the integrity of the electoral roll?
“Their objection was never about the process. It was about politics,” he added.
