Janandolan Maha Maitri, Citizens For Democracy and others seek resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, Gyanesh Kumar

Janandolan Maha Maitri, Citizens for Democracy and other organizations demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar; one for its failure to conduct perfect review and the other for its partisan role through Special Intensive Revision, respectively.

Addressing media persons in Hubballi on Wednesday, president of Samaj Parivartana Samudaya and Citizens for Democracy SR Hiremath said that due to SIR, Dalits, immigrants, minorities and Adivasis are being excluded from the electoral rolls on an unprecedented scale.

Mr. Hiremath also described the recent judgment of the Supreme Court upholding the SIR as the most disappointing judgment as it failed to uphold the letter and spirit of both the Constitution and the Constituent Assembly debates for the independence of the Election Commission of India.

Taking exception to the Chief Justice of India’s comment on cockroaches and parasites, he said Citizens for Democracy and other organizations had written a strongly worded letter to Chief Justice Surya Kant.

He said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should resign immediately, taking responsibility for the failure to conduct clean testing at the national level like NEET-UG, CBSE and others. He said the failure had a negative impact on the future of thousands of students.

Taking strong exception to the way the Chief Election Commissioner of India and the Election Commission operates, Mr Hiremath said certain developments were cause for great concern. He said large-scale removal of people from voter rolls without following the process of natural justice would further harm the country.