A group of Kannada writers and authors have written an open letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka and the State government against conducting Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Karnataka.

The list of signatories include writers L.N. Mukund Raj, Banu Mushtaq, Rajendra Chenni and activist-actor Prakash Raj, among others.

The letter read, “Already, due to the SIR, eligible voters ranging from 20 lakh to three crores have been excluded from the voter list across States. We are worried that this is an agenda to create a second-class population without citizenship rights in large numbers and not an effort at identifying infiltrators. The State government and the Chief Electoral Officer should not allow such injustice to happen in the land of Sharanas, Sufi saints and poet-laureate Kuvempu.”

The writers have placed various demands to the Chief Election Commissioner, Karnataka, through this letter. They include restricting the use of Logical Discrepancy software in Karnataka that was used in West Bengal during the SIR process. Once the draft list is prepared, village assemblies should be convened, public scrutiny should be conducted, and only after this, the list should be finalised, they have said.

Furthermore, they have demanded maintaining transparency through the use of a machine-readable format for the voter list. A minimum of six months should be given for filing an appeal/objection and providing the necessary documents.

Meanwhile, they have requested the State government to focus on the improvement of master roll of voters as the GBA elections are approaching fast and people are in fear of losing their voting rights.

They have also requested that as per the Election Commission’s manual, before finalising the voter list, village councils and ward councils should be convened to accept the amendments, publicly review them, and finalise them with the necessary amendments.

“These village/ward meetings should be conducted by applying the social verification criteria formulated by the commission. This should ensure that the State Election Commission’s list is more accurate and valid. In short, we insist that the government should take responsibility to ensure that no eligible voter in the State is left out,” the letter read.

They have also extended their support to Prathirodha Samavesha that has been organised on June 20 at Freedom Park in Bengaluru against the SIR.