Kamal Haasan urges transparency in electoral rolls, condemns detention of Opposition MPs

CHENNAI: MNM president and Rajya Sabha member Kamal Haasan on Monday called for greater transparency in the country’s electoral rolls and strongly condemned the detention of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc MPs during their protest in New Delhi.

In a statement addressed to “the people of India”, Haasan said he was speaking not as a politician or an artist, but as a citizen deeply concerned about the state of Indian democracy. He questioned the Election Commission’s reluctance to publish the electoral rolls in machine-readable formats that would enable independent verification.

“Why demand a written oath from the Leader of the Opposition when the very data he cites is from the Election Commission's records?” he asked, referring to recent controversies over alleged irregularities in voter lists. Citing reported cases of suspicious additions in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and the ongoing Special Intensive Revision exercise in Bihar, he alleged that some official responses had been inadequate.

He urged the Election Commission to emulate the example of former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan, who he said was “impartial, fearless and above partisan politics”. He called upon the Commission to publish the rolls in machine-readable form and allow independent audits.

He appealed to all political parties, including constituents of NDA and citizens across the country to take the demand for clean electoral rolls “from village to town, from town to city” in defence of the republic.