Voter deletions threaten democracy: Parakala Prabhakar
Political Analyst Parakala Prabhakar speaking at a meeting in Tirupati on Wednesday
TIRUPATI: Political analyst Dr Parakala Prabhakar said that removing citizens from the voters’ list is like committing “a political massacre without bloodshed.”
He spoke at the first state conference of the Citizens’ Awareness Forum held in Tirupati on Wednesday on the occa-sion of International Human Rights Day.
Prabhakar said that deleting names from the voters’ list weakens democra-cy and slowly removes constitutional safeguards.
He warned that if people do not stand up to protect democracy and the Con-stitution now, the future will be unsafe for everyone.
He questioned how people who had no role in the freedom struggle now claim to be nationalists. He also expressed concern that the violence in Manipur for the past two years has not received enough public attention.
He criticised the rising cost of living and asked whether these issues are not connected to human rights. He also raised questions about the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revi-sion (SIR) and its authority to decide who is a citizen.
Speakers at the conference, including Centre for Protection of Democratic Rights and Secularism (CPDRS) national general secretary Runche Sridhar and district president Vaka Prasad, dis-cussed the purpose of the forum and its responsibilities.
The meeting passed three resolutions, including demands to withdraw the SIR process and oppose certain labour laws and surveillance apps. Forum district honorary president Raghava, Prof K V Chand, Omkar and others took part.