Kolkata: The United Interfaith Foundation on Saturday hosted “My Vote, My Right: Safeguarding Electoral Integrity in the Context of SIR”, initiating a conversation on democracy and citizenship bringing together political representatives, faith leaders, and civil society members to examine concerns surrounding electoral processes and the SIR.Speakers stressed that voting was not mere paperwork but an expression of constitutional rights, and called for vigilance, transparency and collective responsibility. The panelists deliberated on the implications of the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bengal on the same day when the final revised voter list was published, lending urgency to concerns raised at the event, as the state heads into Assembly elections in a few weeks.The panel discussion was moderated by Chahat Ahluwalia. Prashant Bhushan, senior advocate of the Supreme Court, argued that democratic legitimacy depends not only on the accuracy of electoral rolls but also on inclusion and procedural fairness.“We already saw in Assam how the NRC exercise led to large-scale exclusion, and when its consequences became politically and socially untenable, corrective frameworks like the CAA were introduced. Now, with the SIR, we must ask whether we are repeating a cycle of administrative experimentation with fundamental rights. The SC in the Lal Babu Rai judgment made it clear that questions of identity and citizenship cannot be decided arbitrarily,” said Bhushan.More than 1 crore voters in Bengal were called for hearings over what officials termed ‘logical discrepancy’. “In a country where millions possess no formal documentation due to poverty or displacement, the burden cannot unfairly shift onto the citizen. Electoral revision must enhance integrity and not produce what I call a ‘logical disruption’ of democracy, where procedure overtakes justice,” he added.“Democracy cannot be reduced to paperwork. When revision processes begin to create fear among ordinary people, particularly the marginalised, we must collectively reaffirm that inclusion and not exclusion is the soul,” said Satnam Singh Ahluwalia, member of the West Bengal Minorities Commission and secretary of the United Interfaith Foundation.The Archbishop of Kolkata, Rev Elias Frank, said, “In every voter stands a human story, a family, a future. Democracy is sacred because it recognises that each life carries equal value. Administrative processes must be guided not only by rules but by compassion and accountability. To safeguard the vote is to safeguard human dignity itself,” said Frank. “A sitting CM of a state went to the SC to appeal for justice. The way SIR was conducted in the state lacked transparency. Lakhs of people were harassed and are anxious about their status,” said Nadimul Haque, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP.
