Opposition MPs tear, throw 'SIR' posters in bin as symbolic rejection of exercise
INDIA bloc
parties, including
Congress
president
Mallikarjun Kharge
and former party chief
Rahul Gandhi
, on Friday held an unusual protest in
Parliament House
complex against the voter roll revision in Bihar by tearing posters with '
SIR
' written on them and putting them in a 'disposal bin'.
They also staged a protest march in Parliament House complex, demanding the rollback as well as a discussion on the issue in both houses.
Explore courses from Top Institutes in
Please select course:
Select a Course Category
MBA
Others
healthcare
Digital Marketing
PGDM
Technology
MCA
Cybersecurity
Operations Management
Data Science
Project Management
others
Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence
Degree
Public Policy
Design Thinking
Data Analytics
Finance
CXO
Product Management
Data Science
Management
Leadership
Skills you'll gain:
Financial Management
Team Leadership & Collaboration
Financial Reporting & Analysis
Advocacy Strategies for Leadership
Duration:
18 Months
UMass Global
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Starts on
May 13, 2024
Get Details
Skills you'll gain:
Analytical Skills
Financial Literacy
Leadership and Management Skills
Strategic Thinking
Duration:
24 Months
Vellore Institute of Technology
VIT Online MBA
Starts on
Aug 14, 2024
Get Details
Ahead of the start of the day's proceedings, several MPs of the opposition, including those of the Congress, DMK,
Samajwadi Party
, TMC, RJD and Left parties, carried out a protest march with the banner 'SIR- Loktantra par Var'.
Then in front of the Makar Dwar steps, a bin was placed and one by one the opposition leaders, including Kharge and Gandhi, tore the poster with SIR written on it and put it in the bin as a symbolic rejection of the exercise.
The MPs also raised slogans like "
Save democracy
" and "Stop vote-bandi".
Live Events
The opposition has been protesting in both houses of Parliament against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at disenfranchising voters in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections.
Rajya Sabha was
adjourned
till Monday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
30 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
For Pakistan & US, it is back to doing business
There is a discernible sense of satisfaction within Pakistan's strategic fraternity at the undeniable uptick in the US-Pakistan interface over the past few months. Some may dispute the extent, but given how the relationship had eroded in the past decade-and-a-half, any improvement represents a big change. Given the transactional nature that dominates the US, there is the temptation to find direct factors for the upswing in US-Pakistan relations. (AP) The principal milestones of the US-Pakistan downturn are well known. For Pakistan, the US detection and killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 in Abbottabad was a betrayal and a public humiliation. For many Pakistanis, that the US acted clandestinely deep inside Pakistan superseded the enormity of the fact that Osama had been living there all the time under the very noses of the Pakistan military. The free fall continued with mounting US frustrations over Pakistan's double game in Afghanistan. President Trump's 2018 New Year Day tweet exemplified this view. The tweet underlined US foolishness in giving Pakistan billions of dollars in aid in return for deceit and lies! This was consistent with emergent US narratives about Pakistan, but that it was from the President himself made it doubly significant. Through the Biden tenure matters crystallised at a low plateau of bad blood and mutual recriminations. The US's final withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 in disorder and disarray added another layer to the deep strategic mistrust and suspicion that now characterised the relationship. President Biden did not have even a telecon with Imran Khan during the time he was PM and Imran Khan in turn blamed the US for his premature ouster from power. In the meantime, most US military and security assistance was suspended. What perhaps hurt Pakistan the most was the impact this had on training programmes for Pakistan military officers in the US. All this happened also when the India-US relationship seemed effortlessly to go from strength to strength. This further highlighted the distance between Washington and Islamabad. The past few months appear quite different. The change was animated quite dramatically by Field Marshal Asim Munir being hosted by President Trump in June 2025 in the immediate aftermath of Operation Sindoor. It is most unusual — perhaps even unprecedented — for a US president to host a chief of a foreign military who is not a head of State or government. This shift also coincides with new ambiguities in the US-India interface — perhaps triggered by President Trump's constant reiteration of having prevented further escalation in the India-Pakistan conflict during Operation Sindoor. To many in Pakistan, this has 'internationalised' Kashmir and highlighted the importance of third-party intervention as equally that even the US was skeptical about India's claims and demands. There had been earlier indicators of change beginning with President Trump's acknowledgement of Pakistan's counter-terrorism assistance in his State of the Union Address in March 2025. The allocation of a significant financial package as assistance to Pakistan for maintaining its F16 aircraft despite an otherwise stringent foreign aid cutback, was another. Alongside, more even-handed references to the India-Pakistan dynamic, meetings and telephone conversations between the US secretary of State and senior Pakistan leaders further underlined this shift. The announcement of a US-Pakistan Trade Agreement, albeit with a 19% tariff on imports from Pakistan, and Trump's enthusiastic references to hydrocarbon exploration and investment, are but the latest in this trend. The trade agreement may not be the best deal Pakistan could have got, but it is not as bad as could have been, and in any case some deal was better than no deal as far as the government of Pakistan was concerned. It may well be argued that there is nothing particularly significant in these transitions, but for most Pakistanis they suggest a return of their country to the US's radar after a long period of being out in the cold. What explains this shift? Given the transactional frame of mind that dominates the US, there is always the temptation to look for a direct and material factor. Numerous reasons are, therefore, assigned for this shift in US policy. Pakistan's counter-terrorism potential and the assistance it can offer is one. That the US is keen to have some relationship with Pakistan given the growing spread of China in the region is another. There is also the view that recommendations of the US Central Command on Pakistan's military potential vis-à-vis Iran in terms of its geographical location and the value of its air bases may have registered on the Presidency amid the current situation in West and South West Asia. Some argue that this shift in policy was also pushed along by crypto currency deals, and by US interest in potential Pakistani reserves of rare earth minerals. Each of these explanations may have some merit but perhaps the weight of any or all of these should not be exaggerated. Instead, it is useful to refocus on some basics. Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population with some 250 million people. It is riven by instability. It has nuclear weapons. It is situated in a sensitive geo-political location, almost in a global fault line. Given these attributes it was always only a matter of time that the long downturn in US Pakistan relations would reverse and US interest in Pakistan would reignite. We are at that stage now. All major powers decide on policies based on an appreciation of their own interests and their own understandings of evolving situations. To think that the long downturn in US Pakistan relations would have simply continued or that the US would see developments from our perspective alone is, and never was, a realistic assessment. We should take this shift in our stride. If some in India feel betrayed or dismayed at this turn of events, they have only themselves to blame. TCA Raghavan is a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan. The views expressed are personal.
New Indian Express
30 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
ECI suspends four West Bengal electoral officers for voter list tamperings, orders probe
NEW DELHI: Election Commission of India on Tuesday suspended four West Bengal government officers for allegedly including wrongful names in the voters list and compromising data security, officials said. The poll panel also asked the West Bengal Chief Secretary to lodge FIRs against the four officers under provisions of the election laws. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated action against four West Bengal election officials following a Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) report exposing unauthorized inclusions in electoral rolls of Baruipur Purba and Moyna constituencies. In its letter to the Chief Secretary - a copy obtained by this newspaper - the ECI cited the CEO's findings of irregularities committed by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs. The officers - Debottam Dutta Choudhury (ERO), Tathagata Mondal (AERO), Biplab Sarkar (ERO), and Sudipta Das (AERO) were responsible for preparing, revising, and correcting electoral rolls. The ECI directed that "suitable disciplinary proceedings" be initiated against them and FIRs lodged for actions amounting to "criminal misconduct." An FIR was also recommended against casual data entry operator Surojit Halder. The discrepancies surfaced during a sample check of voter application forms (Form 6) by the West Bengal Election Commission. The ECI noted that the officers violated due procedure, warranting penalties under Section 32(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. Following the CEO's orders, the District Election Officer (DEO) must form a senior officials' team to scrutinice all voter forms processed in the past year and submit a report by August 14, 2025. The ECI instructed the Chief Secretary to ensure strict compliance and submit an action-taken report "at the earliest." The move comes amid Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the ECI's push for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state's electoral rolls.
Hans India
30 minutes ago
- Hans India
BRS Gadwal In-Charge Basu Hanumanthu Naidu Slams Congress Over Kaleshwaram Report, Calls It a Political Vendetta
Gadwal: The Kaleshwaram Commission report is part of a politically motivated vendetta jointly carried out by the Congress and BJP parties, said Basu Hanumanthu Naidu, BRS Party in-charge for Gadwal constituency. He made these remarks after attending a live screening of the PowerPoint presentation delivered by former minister T. Harish Rao on the Kaleshwaram issue. The session was organized on Tuesday at the BRS District Office in Gadwal, where Basu Hanumanthu Naidu, along with party leaders and cadres, watched Harish Rao's presentation—broadcast from the Telangana Bhavan, Hyderabad—on an LED screen. The presentation addressed what the BRS party claims are false allegations made by the Congress government about corruption in the Kaleshwaram Project. Speaking on the occasion, Basu Hanumanthu Naidu stated that Harish Rao 'broke the lies into pieces' with factual clarity. He accused the Congress of proving the saying 'one lie leads to a thousand lies.' Referring to Congress' earlier claims of ₹1 lakh crore corruption in the Kaleshwaram project, he criticized them for fabricating new lies to back their initial baseless claims after coming into power. 'No matter how many commissions you set up, how many investigations you conduct, or how many hundreds of pages you publish in your reports, the BRS party is ready to face all of it,' he asserted. He added that what the Congress government failed to achieve in 60 years, KCR accomplished in just three years by completing the Kaleshwaram Project and bringing water to drought-hit fields. 'No amount of fake documentation can erase this truth,' he emphasized. The event saw participation from a large number of BRS leaders and supporters, including Nagar Doddi Venkata Ramulu, Chakradhar Rao, G. Raghavendra Reddy, Angadi Basavaraj, Patel Janardhan Reddy, Atukuri Rehman, Monesh, Kottapalli Venkateshwara Reddy, Beechupalli Kurava Palleiah, S. Ramu Naidu, Ganjipeta Raju, Venkatesh Naidu, Tower Mukbal, Mahadevappa, D. Shekhar Naidu, Rayapuram Veeresh, Govindu, Maddileti, Rajini Babu, Muni Mourya, Rolli Krishna, Kangaru Thimmappa, Abraham, Anji, Govardhan, Obulesh, Ramudu, Venkatesh, Thimmappa, Gonupadu Ramu, Nagaraju, Anjaneyulu, along with several party leaders, workers, youth members, and supporters.
