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Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
'How will you...?': Why Asaduddin Owaisi warned youth against getting addicted to reels
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has warned the youth against getting addicted to reels, saying too much consumption of such content can "destroy brains". He also linked his warning to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the assembly election in Bihar. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi warned the youth against harmful impacts of getting addicted to reels.(ANI) Urging all to read newspapers instead of scrolling through reels, Owaisi on Tuesday said, "You can't become leaders, doctors, engineers, or scientists if you waste time watching reels. Watching reels only destroys the brain and wastes time." Invoking the controversy surrounding the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Owaisi asked the youth how will they answer Booth Level Officers if they remain engrossed into reels. "I mean what is going on in Bihar in the name of intensive revision, many people are being called Bangladeshi, Nepali and from Myanmar... if a BLO comes up to you, how will you answer their questions?" Owaisi asked during an address in Hyderabad. The Election Commission's SIR exercise recently sparked a controversy, and Owaisi has also spoken against it, questioning the poll panel's authority to determine citizenship of Indians. "Who gave the ECI the power to determine whether someone is a citizen or not? Our party was the first to say that SIR is NRC through the back door," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. He also demanded the results of the last time this exercise was carried out in 2003, and how may foreign nationals were revealed at the time. "We demand the number of those BLOs. We will ask our party members to meet those BLOs and ask them where the people from Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh are that they are talking about..." Owaisi said. As part of the exercise, the EC has so far collected 86.32% of enumeration forms, and the final round of door-to-door visits for this will soon take place.
India Today
5 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
At Ground Zero in Bihar, a common refrain: Voted in 2024, vanished in 2025
It started with a push from my senior that an unbiased outlook investigating the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in Bihar is important with the replugging of the illegal immigration political conversation. That was enough to push me to board a flight from Delhi to Patna despite travel anxiety peaking through the recent crash and tracing the arc of deletion stories making their way from urban corners to far-flung the time we drove through Muzaffarpur and reached Hajipur, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in the field were already speaking in half-truths and contradictions. What was going on with the SIR process? Why were citizens, largely Muslim, Bengali-origin, or from the Shershabadi community, finding their names missing from electoral rolls after having voted just a year ago? In Bihar, the Special Intensive Revision was initiated to update electoral rolls by identifying dead, duplicate, or voters who have migrated. Before the SIR began, the Election Commission had conducted a summary revision of the electoral rolls. This concluded in June 2025. The summary revision is a scheduled, annual process through which voters can add, correct, or delete theory, this means that between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the SIR, there was one formal opportunity for changes to be made to the rolls. Yet, many voters are finding out now - during the SIR - that their names have been quietly raises a crucial question: At what point did these deletions actually take place? Were they removed during the summary revision without informing voters, or is the SIR now being used to retroactively validate such deletions?What is clear on the ground is confusion and panic. Individuals named in the 2024 rolls are being told they do not exist in the system. And the process, I discovered, varies sharply - sometimes from booth to booth. In Purnea's Chimni Bazar, 400 voters, all Muslim, had their names missing from the voter list IN PURNEA, DELETIONS RAISE QUESTIONS ON TIMINGWe entered Chimni Bazaar in Purnea, a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood. We met Sitab, the ward parshad, who claimed that 400 voters, all Muslim, had their names missing from the voter BLO told them their enumeration records could not be found. One of those whose name vanished showed us his 2024 voter slip. He had cast his vote. But now, when he went to verify his name for 2025, he was told, "Naam list mein hi nahi hai" (Your name is not on the list).Across the mohalla, I heard the same refrain. Voters were missing from the current enumeration list. They had voter ID cards, yet their names were marked as deleted. This raised a sharp question - at what point between the 2024 election and the 2025 SIR process did their names go missing?advertisementWhat makes this more complicated is that the summary revision, which concluded just weeks before the SIR, should have caught and corrected these deletions if they were in several residents told us they were neither informed of objections nor asked for fresh documentation during that time. Now under SIR, they are expected to fill Form 6 or, as they say, are yet to be told about this process. A BLO claimed the deletions were done at the district level, not by BLOs 'DELETIONS DONE AT DISTRICT LEVEL'The ward is manned by four BLOs. In the local government school, we began a candid conversation with one of them. The officer, who had been in the system for close to 18 years, opened up about the claimed the deletions were done at the district level, not by BLOs."2024 mein vote diya, 2025 mein naam kat gaya. Deletions toh zila se ho raha hai. Hamara system ek saal hi hua hai ki allow karta hai add ya delete. Abhi toh add bhi nahi ho raha (Voted in 2024, but name got deleted in 2025. The deletions are happening at the district level. Our system only allows additions or deletions once a year. Right now, even additions aren't happening)," he said in one asked him how voters who had valid documents could be struck off the responded, "There must have found something wrong. Only then would the name be removed. Names don't just get deleted like that at the district level. I feel like 60% of the people are outsiders. They are all scared that their names might get cut too."When I asked if he could identify illegal migrants, he hesitated. "Sab bolta hai Bangladeshi nahi hai, Bangal se hai. Lekin humein doubt hai. Ek aata hai, pachaas peechhe aate hain (Everybody says he is not Bangladeshi, he is from Bengal. But we have doubts. If one comes, he brings 50 more)," he officer went on to say that lakhs of names were removed earlier, but he does not know how. He had even been threatened by a resident whose name was deleted. "Two-three people even threatened us. We have complained to the SDM," he IN MUZAFFARPUR AND HAJIPURBefore Purnea, we stopped at Muzaffarpur and Hajipur, towns with mixed populations and relatively less panic than Seemanchal. Here, we found something equally troubling - the form submission process itself is being Muzaffarpur, a BLO gave us a live demo of the mobile app interface. Under the SIR tab, they showed how a name, date of birth, and photograph could be uploaded without any supporting documents. SIR mobile app interface "Since we are locals and know most residents, we have the authority to verify whether someone is born here. Later, if there's an objection or the ERO seeks documents, we will collect them," he system is OTP-verified using the BLO's mobile credentials. Once a form is uploaded with name and date of birth, the applicant is added to the digital queue even if no document is scanned. The system is OTP-verified using the BLO's mobile credentials 'TAKE FORM FIRST, COLLECT DOCUMENT LATER'In Hajipur, the inconsistency was even starker. One BLO told us, "We were initially told not to take the form without documents. But now the directive is, take the form first, collect the document later if needed."advertisementA BLO sahayak added, "Till a few days ago, Aadhaar numbers weren't accepted. But now, if someone isn't on the 2003 roll and doesn't give documents, we still submit the form with just Aadhaar number, name, date of birth, and signature."This is a significant shift. On paper, the SIR process requires proof of citizenship, age, and residence. But BLOs in Hajipur admit they have been told to use discretion.A BLO supervisor explained, "This exercise is primarily to remove dead or duplicate voters. Document checking will happen after August 25 depending on new instructions."SOME BLOs ACCEPT AADHAAR, OTHERS SAY OPTIONALIndia Today recorded footage of BLOs submitting enumeration without uploading any documents. In some locations, Aadhaar numbers are being used even though the form lists Aadhaar as optional."In some places Aadhaar is used, in some places it is optional," said a BLO in Muzaffarpur. This has led to major confusion among applicants. While one BLO submits a form with just an Aadhaar number, another refuses the week, the Supreme Court asked the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar, voter ID card, and ration card in its verification the next part of this series, we will bring you more revelations - from how foreign nationals are being combed out across Seemanchal to how documents have gone missing to how door-to-door surveys are being skipped while BLOs face mounting pressure and unrealistic targets on the ground.- EndsMust Watch
The Wire
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Wire
Journalist and YouTuber Ajit Anjum Booked Over His Video on Bihar SIR; Digipub Condemns
The Begusarai district administration, in a statement, dismissed the claims of irregularities in Anjum's reportage, calling it 'baseless' and 'misleading'. The FIR was registered on July 13 at the Ballia police station in connection to a video on his YouTube channel on July 12, in which Anjum had alleged large-scale irregularities in the voter list in the Sahebpur Kamal assembly constituency. The video showed how the SIR process was being undertaken in Balia and claimed that many voter forms were being filled and uploaded without the Election Commission's required documents or photographs. The district administration, in a statement released on platform X, dismissed these claims and called it 'baseless' and 'misleading'. It also alleged that the video was intended to 'incite public sentiment'. According to a report by Newslaundry, the FIR was filed based on a complaint by booth-level officer Mohammad Ansarulhaq, who alleged that Ajit Anjum and his colleagues met him while he was uploading data using the BLO app and began asking questions about Muslim voters in the area. Earlier in the day, Ajit Anjum had posted on X that he did not receive a copy of the FIR said to have been filed against him. 'I'm getting information about an FIR being filed against me in Begusarai, Bihar. I have not received a copy of the FIR. I am waiting,' he said. He also wrote about the video in question and alleged that he had been coerced to delete the video to which he refused. 'Two days ago, I reported irregularities in the forms being filled for 'SIR' in Ballia block. I was called by the local BDO and SDO, asking me to delete the video. I did not listen to them. The result is evident,' he said. 'There are a hundred questions about the Election Commission's methods in Bihar. Instead of answering those questions, efforts have now begun to intimidate journalists. In this video, I have presented my side. I will not be scared. I will show only the truth. I will report on the shortcomings,' he added. 'I am waiting for official information about the FIR. I came to Begusarai from Kishanganj last night so that the administration does not face much trouble in searching for me,' he further added. बिहार के बेगूसराय में मेरे खिलाफ FIR किए जाने की जानकारी आ रही है . FIR की कॉपी मुझे नहीं मिली है . मैं इंतज़ार कर रहा हूं. दो दिन पहले मैंने बलिया प्रखंड में ' SIR ' के लिए भरे जा रहे FORM में अनियमितता की रिपोर्टिंग की थी . मुझे स्थानीय BDO और SDO की तरफ से कॉल करके वीडियो… — Ajit Anjum (@ajitanjum) July 14, 2025 Digipub condemns FIR Meanwhile, Digipub, a coalition of digital media organisations and independent journalists, has strongly condemned the FIR filed against the journalist calling it a 'direct assault' on independent journalism. In a statement, the journalists' body said, 'DIGIPUB News India Foundation strongly condemns the FIR filed against independent senior journalist and YouTuber Ajit Anjum in Begusarai, Bihar and demands that the FIR be immediately withdrawn.' 'This FIR is not just an attack on an individual journalist-it is a direct assault on independent journalism and the public's right to know the truth. While reporting from the ground on the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) process in Begusarai, Ajit Anjum highlighted exactly what the people on the ground shared with him. According to him, he was trying to bring out the facts related to SIR. However, this honest effort appears to have displeased the govement and administration,' the statement read. It also pointed to the press release that the Begurasai district administration had issued prior to the FIR, calling Anjum's reportage 'misleading'. 'These vague allegations are neither credible nor reason enough for an FIR. Either authorities should learn to provide accurate and factual information to journalists' queries or step aside when journalists find information on their own with no cooperation from a democratic machinery that should be providing transparency but seldom does. 'Ajit Anjum had also raised concerns about violations of the Election Commission's guidelines in Bihar-something that falls well within the responsibilities of a journalist, not a criminal offense. Instead of addressing those legitimate questions, the Election Commission, through this FIR, has attempted to intimidate not just him but all independent journalists who dare to report from the ground,' Digipub stated. The body said that the action appears to be a 'systematic and deliberate attempt to silence the press and suppress inconvenient truths' and asserted that it was an attack on press freedom and a threat to democratic values and the constitutional right to free expression. 'This FIR, in our view, is nothing but a cover-up for institutional failures, and we strongly oppose it. We stand in solidarity with Ajit Anjum and with every journalist who has the courage to speak the truth,' it asserted. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
The Hindu
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Election Commission's claim of foreign nationals in Bihar voter rolls is meant to ‘obfuscate reality' and a ‘lame excuse' for SIR: CPI(ML)
Targeting the Election Commission's (EC) for claiming that a large number of foreigners were found in the voter rolls in Bihar, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), or CPI(ML), general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has said that such claims are made to 'obfuscate the reality and create a lame excuse for the absurd SIR [Special Intensive Revision] exercise'. No such complaint was raised during the 2024 elections and EC, in a reply to Parliament in 2019, had claimed that there was no issue of foreign nationals in the country, he said. The EC had, on Sunday (July 13, 2025), claimed that booth-level officers (BLOs), during their house-to-house visits for the SIR in the State, had found a large number of people from 'Nepal, Bangladesh and Mayanmar'. 'Contrary to the EC's assurance of BLOs paying three visits to every household and supplying two enumeration forms to every elector, ground reports from Bihar tell us that many households have not had any BLO visit and most electors have no acknowledgement receipt or record regarding the forms submitted,' Mr. Bhattacharya said. The CPI(ML) leader also alleged that the BLOs who are 'conveying the true picture to journalists are being suspended'. He said that at least one BLO has reportedly collapsed under work pressure, and a BDO has even tendered resignation alleging harassment. 'We all know that even in 2019, the EC had told Parliament that there was no foreign national issue and only three electors in India were found doubtful. The EC had no answer to the questions asked by the Supreme Court when the hearing on SIR began on 10 July,' Mr. Bhattacharya added. The claim that 'large numbers' of foreign nationals were found, Mr. Bhattacharya said, is made only to 'obfuscate the reality and create a lame excuse for the absurd SIR exercise'. 'Unknown source-based stories are being planted to mislead the harassed electorate of Bihar. The SIR exercise is getting murkier with every passing day. Bihar deserves better and will not brook this sinister votebandi (disenfranchisement) drive,' Mr. Bhattacharya said.
The Hindu
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Take active part in Special Intensive Revision, appeals Bihar Chief Electoral Officer
Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vinod Singh Gunjiyal on Saturday (July 12, 2025) appealed to voters of all urban Assembly constituencies in the State to actively participate in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, carried out in accordance with the instructions of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Expressing concern, the Chief Electoral Officer said the participation of voters in urban areas was relatively lower than in rural areas. Editorial | Careful curation: On Bihar's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls The appeal was made via a press note issued by the office of the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer. The participation of voters in rural areas had been encouraging, and about 77% of the enumeration forms had been compiled so far, the statement said. Data on the compilation of enumeration forms in various urban Assembly constituencies appear currently as — Digha (64%), Kumhrar (67%), Bankipur (72%), Patna Sahib (74.21%), Danapur (73%), Gaya Town (69%), Bhagalpur Town (71%), and Muzaffarpur Town (70%). There are a total of 243 Assembly constituencies in Bihar. 'Not only the compilation of enumeration forms in urban areas, but also the vote percentage is generally low, which shows the indifference of voters in the election process. Earlier, prefilled enumeration forms were also made available in urban areas, out of which 60-65 percent have been returned after filling, but the remaining forms are not available,' the Chief Electoral Officer's statement said. In the ongoing SIR campaign, enumeration forms were being made available to voters in urban areas through the 'Har Ghar Dastak' programme by Booth Level Officers, and personnel of municipal bodies. In this form, voters had to fill in the information, including name, EPIC number, mobile number, and other necessary details, and attach their passport-size photograph. Voters can also download their Prefilled Enumeration Form from or fill the enumeration form online. 'If you do not have the necessary documents, then fill the enumeration form with the necessary information and submit it immediately so that your name appears in the draft voter list to be published on August 1, 2025. The required documents can also be made available to the BLO during the claim-objection period from August 1, 2025 to September 1, 2025,' the statement said. Participation is essential in strengthening democracy, and active cooperation is expected for the success of this ECI campaign, Mr. Gunjiyal. 'Remember, your participation is the real strength of democracy,' the Chief Electoral Officer said.
