Former Civil Servants and Goa CM Defend Election Commission
Former Indian civil servants and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant rejected allegations of vote rigging and electoral roll manipulation during the Special Intensive Revision process.
A group of 124 former Indian civil servants, including retired IAS and IFS officers, issued an open letter defending the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The signatories, including former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, rejected claims of vote rigging, arguing that safeguards such as EVM sealing and VVPAT verification ensure system integrity. They cited the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, which saw record turnout and no re-polling, as evidence of a successful process.
The officers described the SIR as a necessary cleaning operation to remove deceased and duplicate voters. In Bihar, the process identified 22 lakh deceased and 7 lakh duplicate entries. The group noted that the Bharatiya Janata Party has lost several state elections and its parliamentary majority in 2024 under the same ECI, asserting that the system cannot be viewed as honest only when one wins and rigged when one loses.
Simultaneously, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant defended the SIR in Goa after Opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress, alleged the process manipulated rolls to benefit the ruling party. Sawant dismissed these claims, stating the deletion of 1.27 lakh names was due to deaths, duplicates, and migration. He addressed a software error affecting 97 cases, noting that 88 individuals re-registered while the others held foreign passports or lived abroad. Sawant criticized opponents for questioning electronic voting machines only after electoral defeats.
