Economist and political commentator Parakala Prabhakar at an event organized by Eddelu Karnataka at SIR in Dharwad on Sunday. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Economist and political commentator Parakala Prabhakar has described the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls undertaken by the Election Commission of India as “political genocide” and called on citizens to boycott it.
At a meeting in Dharwad on Sunday, he spoke about the various dimensions of SIR and its implications.
The meeting was organized by Eddelu Karnataka and other organizations in Karnataka Vidya Vardhaka Sangha.
“We have to understand that SIR is an exercise put in place by a section of people who want to establish a homogenous society. We have to look at such efforts around the world in the past. What happened in countries in Asia, Europe or America? There were murderous rampages. But then times changed and now they don’t kill. Killing someone without killing is akin to erasing their names from the new voter list, but it’s not genocide.” ‘political genocide’ citizens cannot remain calm but we cannot outsource the fight against SIR to political parties,” he said.
“We should not forget that SIR is here because of our indifference. If we had protested against the incident where a shoe was thrown at the Chief Justice of India, or when innocents were killed at several places in riots, when Manipur was burning and other such incidents, then those in power would have hesitated to introduce SIR,” he said.
“So the real threat of SIR is not that it will help a particular party win elections. SIR is nothing but a constitutional amendment. The constitution guarantees universal adult suffrage based on the principle of ‘one vote one person’. But then SIR negates that right. No other democratic country has guaranteed universal adult suffrage,” he said in the first instance. Rulers slowly extended voting rights to women and minorities.
“But the Constitution of India has given it to everyone from day one. It is because we have built our country on values through the historic struggle for our independence,” he said, adding that the SIR is a tool to politically eliminate minorities, women, illiterates and the poor.
“We have now reached a stage where we don’t elect governments, but governments elect people. Those in power remove those who are unlikely to vote for them,” he said.
“Those who do not want this country to become a ‘Hindu Pakistan’ should take to the streets and say no to SIR,” he said.
Resource person Madhav Deshpande, activists Tara Rao, Shiv Sundar, Noor Shridhar, Gopal Dabade, Ramzan Darga, M. Isabela and others were present.
Published – 16 Nov 2025 20:43 IST
