Kamal Haasan Warns of Voter Rights Risk in First Rajya Sabha Speech
Veteran actor and politician Kamal Haasan made a striking first speech in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, raising serious questions about the way India’s electoral rolls are being revised ahead of elections in Tamil Nadu. The Member of Parliament used his debut address to warn that a government exercise could wrongly remove many eligible voters from the list, potentially harming India’s democratic process.
Haasan, who leads the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party, spoke during a debate on the President’s address to Parliament. He focused on what is called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an exercise by the Election Commission intended to update voter lists across several states. While the official aim of SIR is to correct errors and remove duplicate or ineligible names, Haasan argued that the process is instead jeopardising people’s fundamental right to vote.
At the heart of his concern was the possibility that large numbers of people who are still alive could be marked as “dead” or removed from the rolls because of minor mistakes in their personal details, such as spelling differences in names or addresses. Haasan described this problem with a dramatic warning, saying it was like a “disease giving rise to many living dead”. He pointed to recent events in Bihar, where similar revisions led to numerous cases of such errors, and urged that this should not be allowed to spread further, including into Tamil Nadu.
He said that the checks on voters’ names and addresses, often driven by software matching, might be over-strict and misplaced. “We want to cast our vote and commissions are checking our right to vote,” he told the Upper House, emphasising that these technical mismatches should not cost anyone their democratic rights.
Haasan also expressed support for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is challenging the same revision process in the Supreme Court, underlining that the concerns are not limited to just one state.
Beyond the electoral issue, Haasan spoke about his personal journey from cinema into politics, drawing on his roots in Tamil culture and invoking leaders who inspired him. His speech was met with applause from some members of Parliament and underscored his belief in strengthening democracy rather than undermining it.
