"Don't Play With Fire": MK Stalin Slams Poll Roll Revision In Bihar
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President MK Stalin has come out strongly against the Election Commission of India's (EC) ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, calling it a dangerous attempt to "engineer outcomes, not reform the system."
In a sharply worded post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Mr Stalin warned that "any threat to our democracy will be met with firm resistance." "SIR is not about reform. It is about engineering outcomes. Don't play with fire," he wrote.
"Delhi knows the Bihar electorate that once voted for it will now vote it out. That's why it is trying to stop them from voting altogether. Tamil Nadu will fight this injustice with every democratic weapon at our disposal," he added.
His comments come days ahead of a crucial Supreme Court hearing on Monday, where the Opposition and civil society groups have challenged the Election Commission (EC) decision to carry out the sweeping voter verification exercise, starting in Bihar.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the EC has said that it has the constitutional authority to require voters to prove their citizenship through specific documents, especially for those born between July 1987 and December 2004. It has gone a step further to argue that even Parliament cannot curtail this authority.
The EC insists that this is essential to ensure only Indian citizens are enrolled and says that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) have full powers to seek and scrutinise such documents. It maintains that the onus to prove citizenship lies entirely on the individual.
The Commission has excluded commonly held documents such as Aadhaar, ration cards, and Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) issued before January 2025, from the 'acceptable list' for voter registration under SIR. It has also demanded parental citizenship proof from certain age groups - a move that has drawn widespread criticism.
Multiple opposition parties have slammed the timing, intent, and process of the SIR exercise. They allege that the EC's move, beginning in Bihar just ahead of state elections, is aimed at mass disenfranchisement, particularly of poor and minority communities.
They also point to procedural confusion, including the EC's mid-course change in requirements, initially mandating citizenship proof during door-to-door collection, only to later defer this to a separate verification process.
Ground reports from Bihar suggest that a large number of enumeration forms were submitted without documents. Citizens are now expected to produce proof in person within a tight window, raising fears that many may be excluded.
'Parallel Mechanism'
Legal experts point to a grey area. While the Union government alone can cancel citizenship, the EC claims that it, too, can verify citizenship for the limited purpose of electoral registration. Critics fear this could create a parallel and unaccountable determination mechanism.
The BJP has defended the special intensive revision. Stating that the EC is ensuring only genuine citizens vote is in the national interest, the party has accused opposition parties of fear-mongering and spreading misinformation for political gain. Its leaders have argued that the move helps plug gaps in the system and uphold the integrity of elections.
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Indian Express
3 minutes ago
- Indian Express
SC to hear pleas challenging Bihar electoral roll revision on August 12, 13; says ‘will step in if there is mass exclusion'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on August 12 and 13 pleas related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Bihar and sought to assure petitioners who challenged the process that 'if there is mass exclusion, we will step in'. Hearing the matter on Monday, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, while refusing to stop the ECI from publishing the draft revised list, had asked the parties to inform it on Tuesday how much time they will take to make their submissions so that the court can fix a date. As the court took up the matter on Tuesday, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, submitted that the draft has been advertised and given to political parties. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, said those who have been left out must have a chance to submit objections. 'They will have the right. Who said they won't?' Justice Kant said, adding, 'The moment they deviate from the notification, we will interfere.' To this, Sibal said, 'We don't know who has been left,' and asked if the ECI had given the names of those excluded. Dwivedi replied, 'It won't be given to you. Take from the website.' Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), submitted that according to the ECI, 65 lakh people have not submitted the enumeration forms as they are either dead or have permanently shifted elsewhere. Contending that those excluded will have to apply afresh, he wondered how they will come to know whether they are in the draft. Justice Kant said that the ECI is a constitutional body and 'we would deem their action will be in accordance with the law.' He assured that the court is there to take care of any concern. 'We are here, we will hear you,' he stated. Justice Bagchi said, 'January 2025 list is the starting point if there was no SIR. Draft list will be published by ECI. Your apprehension is 65 lakh-odd voters will not feature… They (ECI) are seeking correction vis-a-vis 2025 entry. We are overviewing the thing as a judicial authority. If there is mass exclusion, we will step in. Bring 15 people saying they are alive but left out.' The ECI counsel, however, said there is a 30-day window for filing objections and that the petitioners should help with adding names. Justice Kant stated that political parties should operate like NGOs during the process. Sibal said the petitioners will have no problem if the ECI mentions who were excluded. Justice Kant then said, 'If the draft list is conspicuously silent, you will bring (it) to our attention.' Dwivedi said the final number would be made public only after the objections are considered. 'Once objections are considered, a real picture would come as to who has been excluded. At least by September 15, we are expecting (the final list),' he added.
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First Post
5 minutes ago
- First Post
India–Maldives ties: Time to look to the future, not the past
Lately, President Muizzu has conceded Delhi as a loyal friend and is working closely with India for economic recovery, which is unlikely to happen without the Maldives helping itself read more President of the Maldives Mohamed Muizzu, right, shakes hand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after signing a memorandum of understanding between the two countries in Male, Maldives, Friday, July 25, 2025. (Indian Prime Ministers Office via AP) At the end of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to the Maldives, 25-26 July, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said it all in his post-talks news briefing. 'Together, the two sides were looking into the future, not the past,' he said. This was India's position even on a day-to-day basis when, as a freshly minted president, host Mohamed Muizzu bad-mouthed India as much as he could for any Maldivian leader on bilateral matters. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The visit was rich in optics—yes. From a public diplomacy perspective, it matters the most in both nations, especially now. The content of the visit was no less positive but was not flashy, as some in India especially had expected. At the end of their talks, Muizzu conceded at a news conference that India was a 'supportive, loyal friend'. It had taken him months to realise it and acknowledge it in public. In retrospect, it is safe to conclude that in his first weeks as president, and during his presidential poll campaign earlier, he was misinformed and misled by those around him. Share of blame Yet, Muizzu cannot absolve himself of the blame, as he already had six long years of experience as a senior minister for the all-important infrastructure development sector during the successive presidencies of Mohammed Waheed and Abdulla Yameen. He spent five years through Yameen's full term in office, during which time he was not known to have even squirmed at the president's anti-democracy initiatives. When Yameen launched his 'India Out' campaign while in the Opposition, Muizzu was seen in those rallies, though not all of them. In turn, this made Muizzu suspect in ordinary Indian eyes, as New Delhi too had reasons to brand Yameen as 'anti-India', more than for his being 'pro-China' or anything else. It was based on Yameen's perceptions about India in the context of Maldivian domestic politics. This is one area where Muizzu too could still trip if he does not take the India element out of his domestic political calculations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This includes motivated domestic perceptions that India backs democratic forces in the archipelago, represented purportedly by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), and that every other leader, including Muizzu, is an autocrat or despot. This domestic perception among all political players in the country is not supported by India's actions that are people-centric, not personality-centric. Greater legitimacy The Prime Minister was accompanied by a high-level team, which included External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. This indicated the level of engagement that accompanied the visit. Incidentally, the presence of NSA Doval was a lesser-known fact for the media in the two countries, but that does not necessarily mean that there were 'secret talks' on the security front, as often assumed. For optics, you had Muizzu receiving the prime minister personally at the Male airport, accompanied later at the official reception with a 21-gun salute, both of them unprecedented, and Modi's presence as the chief guest at the 60th Independence Day of Maldives. It was also the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomacy, as India was among the first nations to recognise the new Maldivian regime post-independence in 1965. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Locally, eyebrows were raised, yes, when President Muizzu addressed a joint rally of the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) and the Maldivian Police Service (MPS) on the afternoon of Independence Day, when the Indian visitor was still in town. This was the first time an incumbent president was addressing the two together after then-President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom bifurcated the infamous National Security Service (NSS) in 2006, in the run-up to full democratisation through a new constitution and presidential elections in 2008. Looked at from a domestic angle, the Indian Prime Minister's visit, followed by that of Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in double-quick succession (July 28-29), is not about his administration opening up to ever-supportive neighbours, which is the truth of the matter. Instead, the perception, starting from Camp Muizzu, is one of his acquiring international legitimacy after having stabilised his hold over domestic governance and politics, in that order. Third visitor, who? STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Given the brutal majority that his People's National Congress (PNC) enjoys in the 93-member Parliament, there was no need for Muizzu to get an 'undemocratic' anti-defection law passed without debate. Nor was there any justification for the government-controlled Judicial Service Commission (JSC) suspending first and sacking three Justices of the Supreme Court when the full, seven-judge bench was set to hear a petition challenging the anti-defection law. Yet, he did both and initiated more such moves that critics claimed were 'anti-democratic'. It is in this context that critics see Muizzu's eagerness to have more foreign visitors on invitation, to tell his world that the international community stood by him. Hence, there is also speculation, if not betting, on who the 'lucky' third one would be after Modi and Anura to receive Muizzu's invitation to visit his country. New Delhi may not have any direct interest, least of all influence, in Muizzu's choice of the next couple of overseas Heads of State and/or Government visiting Maldives on invitation. Yet, India would be watching it all from the ringside to have a clear perspective of Muizzu's foreign, security, and overseas economic policies—not necessarily in that order. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Will the next visitor be the Chinese Prime Minister, if not President Xi Jinping, or Turkey's President Recep Erdogan? After all, Muizzu had courted both nations in his early weeks in office, and possibly before his election, too, and from whose shoulders he was firing (their?) anti-India salvos, too, before seeing their true colours, and tucked his tail between his legs without losing time or initiative. Credit and more On the constructive side, India and Maldives signed a total of eight agreements during Modi's visit, all of them discussed and debated threadbare in-house in the two governments and between them. The list includes one on a $565 million Line of Credit (LoC) from India and another on pharmaceutical supplies. This, in a way, is acknowledgement of the Muizzu Government's failure to obtain 'quality medicines at affordable prices' from Europe without depending on a 'single source' (India), as he had thumbed his chest last year. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Before the pharma deal now, Muizzu had gone back on his muscle-flexing on commissioning annual supplies of essentials, including rice, sugar, and wheat flour, from distant Turkey, again to limit dependence on a 'single source'. It happened after the Houthis' attacks in the Red Sea provided a legitimate excuse for Erdogan to possibly go back on his purported promise during Muizzu's visit only weeks after assuming office in November 2023. In Male, PM Modi also inaugurated multiple India-funded projects and handed over the keys to owners under a housing scheme. In a city with the highest population density for a South Asian capital, urban housing is still politically and electorally sensitive. Balanced FTA Of equal importance is one setting the terms of reference for further discussions on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Maldives. For now, Maldives especially has learnt a lot from the hurried FTA President Yameen signed with China in 2017 but whose implementation he and his successor, President Ibrahim 'Ibu' Solih, both did not take up. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Now, after implementing the China FTA since January 1 this year, Muizzu has found out that Maldives was losing scarce revenue, big time. Maldivians were spending dollars in big numbers, not only in conventional trade but also through online sales of Chinese goods, airlifted mostly out of Hong Kong. In recent months, this has affected small and medium traders in the country. They form a key electoral constituency. But then a 30 per cent service tax on specified online trade firms dealing in Chinese goods has not helped after the latter introduced equal discounts for their Maldivian customers. This would engage Indian negotiators as they work out the details of the Indian FTA in the coming weeks and months. They will also have another example in the Sri Lanka-Maldives FTA, which was signed during President Dissanayake's visit, post-Modi's. National dichotomy Maldives' woes owe to the nation living beyond its means. This has an indirect impact on national security and foreign policy that flows from over-dependence on external assistance. In the name of upholding national security and sovereignty viz the ever-helpful Indian neighbour, presidents like Yameen and Muizzu welcomed extra-regional powers, especially China. It only complicated the nation's security situation even more. They too silently acknowledged post facto that China had a larger scheme in which the Maldives was only a speck, and they could do nothing about it if sucked in more than ready. But domestic compulsions stood in the way of Yameen applying the correctives. With little choice after he found out that China, and also Turkey, did not match word with action, Muizzu at least is on a course correction viz India relations. Maldives' problems reside in the economic sphere. In a 500,000-population, half of whom are on the electoral list, first-time voters in their thousands are jobless. They tend to side with him who promises the moon. Frustration has already driven them to drugs, and the puritans among them tend to take to religious radicalisation—in the absence of any left political movement. Skill sets & FDI All these when available jobs, again in tens of thousands, are going to foreigners, mostly Bangladeshis but with a sizable sprinkling of Indians and some Sri Lankans, too. This is because local youth ambitions are not matched by skill sets that can attract big-ticket FDI in non-tourism sectors, too. Competitive populism is the bane. Every post-democracy president, including incumbent Muizzu, promised to set matters right but has been swept away by electoral compulsions. Going back to the days of 'elected autocracy' is not an option, but that is what successive post-democracy presidents have attempted in their own ways—but failed on both fronts. The people simply threw them out in favour of yet another untested individual, whose face was relatively fresh and whose promises looked beneficial. All of it often leads to situations wherein incumbent governments are tempted to fall back even more on external economic assistance, but in terms of 'competitive ideology', though none exists. Successful experience Muizzu is working closely with India for economic recovery that is unlikely to happen without Maldives helping itself. Given India's successful experience in pulling itself out of the fiscal/economic mess that it found itself in the early nineties, the Maldivian government, as a democracy, can also seek guidance in the matter, after downsizing them to Maldivian levels. In 2013, President Yameen's foreign policy document claimed that his government would make the nation economically strong to be able to have an 'independent foreign and security policy'. The reference was, of course, to India. He failed on the first count, so his government did not reach the second stage, despite his wooing China, as if the nation had a panacea for Maldives' ills. Muizzu began by placing himself in such a conundrum but has been quick to retrieve at least some of the lost ground. How he proceeds from here will decide the future for the Maldives and strategic peace for the region's nations, including India and Sri Lanka. That is where the Maldives' strategic reset should begin, where the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) could provide a basis for defining/redefining the nation's priorities in the present and the future. Such an approach alone can help the Maldives and Muizzu to achieve what they intend to achieve on the domestic front. That is without them having to invite and/or facilitate complex competitive competition between superpower America and wannabe superpower China, both of whom do not belong here but want to be here through proxies. The writer is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst & Political Commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
India.com
5 minutes ago
- India.com
Nimisha Priya: Uncertainty Deepens Over Death Sentence In Yemen As MEA Refutes Overturn Claims
Uncertainty still besets the destiny of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who sits on death row in Yemen. Contradictory reports were heard on Monday, about the fate of her death sentence, keeping her family and supporters in limbo. Earlier on Monday, the office of Grand Mufti Abu Bakr Musliyar stated that Nimisha Priya's death penalty had been officially reversed, suggesting she would no longer be executed in Yemen. This news had briefly raised hopes for her release. But minutes after that, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) quickly denied the Grand Mufti's assertion. MEA sources explained that reports made about Nimisha Priya were "incorrect" and that the Grand Mufti was merely "mediating" in the matter. This MEA announcement threw Nimisha Priya's case back into uncertainty, asking whether her sentence is indeed overturned or if only its execution is suspended. Victim's Family Demands Execution Compounding the complexity, Abdul Fattah Mahdi, the sibling of the late Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi, for whom Nimisha Priya was found guilty of manslaughter, has openly called for Nimisha Priya's instant execution. Expressing himself on a social media page, Abdul Fattah posted a letter to Yemen's Attorney General, asserting that his family demands the instant application of the death sentence without any delay. As per the English portal Onmanorama, in his July 25 letter, he wrote that the order for the death sentence on Nimisha Priya had got the final nod from Yemen's Supreme Political Council. "This decision has now attained the status of a final and binding order. Hence, its implementation is obligatory under the law, and all concerned authorities have to implement it without delay," the letter had allegedly claimed. Abdul Fattah also refuted the Grand Mufti Abu Bakr Musliyar's claim of a meeting between Northern Yemeni authorities, an international delegation, and a group of Islamic clerics appointed by Sheikh Habib Omar bin Hafeez, which was supposedly aimed at overturning the death sentence. Nimisha Priya's execution was originally set for July 16 but was put off indefinitely after mediation by Indian religious leaders. Abdul Fattah had publicly denounced this postponement, declaring that his family "categorically rejected all reconciliation and mediation efforts, as the crime had crossed all boundaries." Grand Mufti's Claim And Family's Arrival Despite the victim's family's position, attempts to spare Nimisha Priya were said to be being made from the side of Grand Mufti Abu Bakr Musliyar. An announcement from the 94-year-old Grand Mufti's office had previously stated Nimisha Priya's death sentence, which was suspended before, had now been "completely cancelled" in a high-ranking meeting in Sanaa. Meanwhile, Michelle, 13-year-old daughter of Nimisha Priya, and her husband have reached Sanaa, Yemen's capital, along with a few mediators in the hopes of winning her release. Nimisha's daughter cried out emotionally, "I miss you Mommy. I love you very much, Mommy. Please help bring my mother home. I really want to meet her." Nimisha Priya, a 38-year-old Indian nurse from Kerala, traveled to Yemen in 2008 in search of improved job prospects. She was an employee at a government hospital. In 2017, she was charged and subsequently convicted of murdering Yemeni citizen Talal Abdo Mahdi.
