Gujarat Muslims robbed of voting rights, claims daily
Sunday, 18 November 2007
New Delhi, November 18: The Muslim minority in Gujarat are being ‘systematically robbed' of their voting rights in the forthcoming Gujarat assembly elections.
A newly-launched daily from leading publication group India Today reported yesterday that names of scores of voters from the Muslim community do not figure on the Election Commission of India’s electoral rolls in the state.
The polls in December have been termed decisive for the BJP in the state ruled by chief minister Narendra Modi. Gujarat’s chief electoral officer Vinod Babbar has been quoted in the report as saying that he has received “a large number of complaints’’ of Muslims not being issued voter identity cards.
Those issued such cards have glaring factual errors in it which would only make it void during the polls. There is a “deliberate’’ attempt by the Modi government to stop Muslims from voting against him in the polls, though pre-poll surveys have given the BJP an advantage in the elections.
Opinion polls have stated clearly that Muslim votes, which constitute just about 20 per cent, will not matter much for Modi to win the elections hands down. “He is clearly on advantage with vote polarisation in Gujarat favouring him,” said.
“If anything, Modi has gained in the last five years as his major rivals have shed popularity points. There is a high level of satisfaction with his performance as the chief minister of the state,” said Yogendra Yadav, a veteran election analyst, in his survey.
However, with new allegations of Muslims being deprived of their electoral rights, the election is turning out to be an exercise where its very validity is being questioned.
Reports suggest that some 2,500 people from the Muslim community have not been issued voters’ cards. “There are yet others who have been issued dud cards either with wrong pictures or with wrong addresses. So even if they go to vote they would be turned away. The voters’ list is drawn up by the district administration, which takes orders from its political bosses,” said the India Today Group’s paper.
“Hundreds of Muslims in Ahmedabad and Surat have apparently been issued wrong cards. For instance, women are issued cards with photographs of men stuck on them or carrying incorrect addresses,” said the paper Mail Today.
The election commission said: “We have organised a drive to issue on-the-spot ID cards. It’s true that we’ve received a fairly large number of complaints from NGOs.”
Gujarat Muslims robbed of voting rights, claims daily
