Speakers at the meeting titled, ‘Challenges facing the Indian Constitution’, organised in Tirupati on Sunday appealed to the public to join the tirade against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls taken up by the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming it as an attempt to thwart democratic principles.

The meeting was attended by economic analyst Parakala Prabhakar, who called upon the public to shun SIR as it was “solely aimed at removing votes from the voter list,” which, he said, was part of the “oppressive policies” of the NDA government at the Centre. He saw a ploy to remove 16.5 crore voters from the list in the near future.

On the change of guard in West Bengal, he condemned the Centre’s deployment of 2.5 lakh police forces in the State for the elections, while failing to send sufficient forces to the trouble-torn Manipur.

Former MLCs K.S. Lakshman Rao and Jalli Wilson, former Minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao, Intellectual Forum president Chalasani Srinivasa Rao, CPI(M) State secretary V. Srinivasa Rao and CPI State secretary G. Eswaraiah also found a looming threat to democracy under the incumbent regime, and wanted people to unite under a common umbrella to fight the “tyrannical rule.”