'SIR deletions could reach nearly 14 crore once the exercise is completed across remaining states.'
'Minorities, Dalits, Adivasis, migrants, labourers and poor women are disproportionately affected by voter deletions.'
'Voter deletion could affect future generations because subsequent SIR exercises may rely on previous voter mapping.
'Election Commission cannot determine citizenship and must refer doubtful cases to the competent authority.'
'Scrap SIR, restore the 2024 voter list and restructure the Election Commission with stronger safeguards.'
Political economist Parakala Prabhakar has been a one-man army relentlessly fighting the working of the Election Commission of India, and the SIR process.
In 2024 after the Lok Sabha elections, he told Rediff, 'All is not well with the Election Commission. They refused to be transparent and accountable.'
In 2025, he told Rediff, 'This election commission has to go. It is the most partial. It functions more like a government department than an autonomous body.'
In May 2026, questioning the SIR process, Mr Prabhakar told Rediff, 'SIR is nothing but bringing the NRC-CAA through backdoor. You are killing lakhs and lakhs of citizenships.'
"When somebody is deleted from the voters list now, not only are they being deleted, but for generations to come, their progenies also will be deleted. Because the SIR exercise is based on 2000 P (2002/2003) voters list mapping,"
Mr Prabhakar tells in the concluding segment of a two-part must-read interview.
Part I: 'Election Commission Is Shameless'
You said in our last interview that they were killing lakhs and lakhs of citizenship.
Yes, that's where I come to.
Data has not come from Tripura and Nagaland. In Himachal, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, the SIR process has not been started yet.
Once these things are complete, I think the total figure of deletion is going to reach somewhere around 14 crores. 14 crore people is not a small number!
85% of the countries in this world have less than 14 crore population.
What does it mean? It means that in India, this election campaign is killing and taking out a few countries and throwing them out. It amounts to that.
93 lakhs in Bengal, 96 lakhs in Tamil Nadu, 24 lakhs in Kerala, 77 lakhs in Gujarat, 45 lakhs in Madhya Pradesh, 44 lakhs in Rajasthan. 2.89 crores in Uttar Pradesh. Nearly 3 crores!
It means the Yogi Adityanath government was elected by an electorate which consisted of 3 crore ineligible voters, right? Then, throw that government out.
Now, you look at who are these people who are being taken out.
It is not random as people thought earlier. It is very clear that a largely disproportionate number of people are Muslim minority, Christian minority, Dalits, Adivasis, marginalised people like daily wage labourers, migrant labourers, illiterate people who do not have documents, who cannot procure documents, poor people, and among all these sections, they are mostly women.
These are the people who are targeted and being deleted.
There is one more very serious implication.
Now, when somebody is deleted from the voters list now, not only are they being deleted, but for generations to come, their progenies also will be deleted. Because the SIR exercise is based on 2000 P (2002/2003) voters list mapping.
And future SIRs will be based on 2025-2026 mapping. So, if you are not a voter now, your progeny cannot be a voter later.
So, by deleting one person today, you are deleting not only that person, but all the future generations of that individual. This is very serious.
When people appeal against the deletion, there is a redressal. In Bengal, 28 lakh people are still waiting for appealing and adjudication, and without being adjudicated and declared, they were prevented from voting in the Bengal elections.
When 28 lakh people were prevented from voting, how can such an election be a legitimate election?
Now, the question is, is it being done to help a particular political party, and harm another political party?
Most people, especially the media, the politicians, a lot of commentators are looking at what way is it helping the BJP, and in what way it is harming the INDIA bloc or the Congress?
But my point is that for a couple of election cycles, this might help the BJP and harm the INDIA bloc.
But there are longer term implications to what SIR is doing because it is targeting a particular section of society and taking them off the voter's list.
It is clear they want to push some people out of the political society.
Imagine 500 people living in a basti. None of them has vote. Would any political party go there? Would any candidate go there? Would any government give them roads, electricity, drinking water, health facility or a school?
Nothing will be given because what they think about the government, about the legislator, doesn't matter to the legislator. They are no consequence.
Which means that these people are out of the political society.
The message is, if you want to live here without a franchise, without being taken care of, you live, otherwise get out.
Like what the great chief minister of Assam said, I don't want these miyas, but I can't push them out. So, I'll create conditions in such a way that they themselves would leave.
All India Students Association national President Neha Bora (in yellow salwar) during the Citizens March from India Gate to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, October 4, 2026. Photograph: ANI Photo
You said last time that SIR is nothing but bringing NRC-CAA through the backdoor...
SIR is CAA (Citizens [Amendment] Act) in disguise.
It brings you to the fundamental question of who does this country belong to.
When you are out of the electoral roll, you don't belong to this country, and the country doesn't belong to you.
Is it the job of the Election Commission to prove the citizenship of a person?
It is not.
It's very clear in the Constitution. It is also very clear in the judgement of the Supreme Court of India delivered in May 2026 that while they can do SIR, they cannot decide on citizenship.
In fact, it went to the extent of telling the Election Commission, if any of your officers found anybody's citizenship doubtful, it should make a list of them and refer to the competent authority under the citizenship act of 1955.
They cannot on their own delete anybody.
If the Election Commission's purpose is purportedly collecting SIR to weed out foreigners, let the Election Commission say that these many foreigners were found.
They have not said a word about it so far.
So, how do they justify this kind of industrial scale of deletion?
As citizens, do the voters have to prove their identity to the Election Commission?
Exactly.
Since 1950 onwards, we always had this practice of including everyone within the border. Today you are not only excluding, but you are putting the burden of proving that you are eligible as the citizen.
In any civilised society, jurisprudence is that if the State chooses somebody of something, the burden of proof lies with the state, and not with the individual.
Next, a very cardinal principle of jurisprudence is that even if five culprits go free, not a single innocent person should be punished.
Now, in the name of finding out some imaginary foreigner, you are depriving people of their citizenship, of their franchise.
So, from any angle, this exercise is harming the roots of India's inclusive, secular, tolerant democracy.
The core Constitutional values are under attack.
I would term the SIR as a bloodless political genocide.
Earlier in nation building in Africa, in America, in Europe, Yugoslavia, Hungary... everywhere, those who were not one of you were either pushed out of the borders or killed.
In 2026, you can neither push out, nor can you kill.
So, when you cannot exterminate a citizen, you exterminate his/her citizenship. Therefore, I call this bloodless political genocide.
Earlier, there were bloody genocides, now it is bloodless political genocide.
So, what should be done immediately? Should SIR be scrapped?
SIR should be scrapped. We should go back to the 2024 voters list.
And the body that is conducting SIR should be immediately disbanded.
All the elections that have taken place on the basis of the SIR voters list should be annulled.
A new Election Commission will have to be constituted on the basis of a completely, freshly redrawn rules, regulations and with enough checks and balances and proper guardrails.
And the selection committee which has a majority for the executive should be changed.
It should not only be properly balanced, but it should also be seen as properly balanced.
Then withdraw the legislation that gave lifetime impunity to the Election Commission.
These are the things that need to be done immediately.
