PolicyForeign affairs
MEA calls US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal's remarks on voter rolls 'unwarranted and uninformed'
Jayapal said she was deeply concerned about what she called a purge of 130 million voters. India's ambassador in Washington called it unacceptable interference.
Key points
- The MEA called Jayapal's remarks "unwarranted and uninformed" at its briefing on Friday.
- Jayapal had posted that India was trying to purge 130 million people from the voting rolls.
- Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra called the comments unacceptable interference.
India on Friday rejected comments by US Representative Pramila Jayapal on the revision of its electoral rolls, with the Ministry of External Affairs calling them “unwarranted and uninformed”.
Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, had written on X: “I am deeply concerned about the actions of the Indian government to purge 130 million people from the voting rolls.”
“We find the remarks of the Congresswoman unwarranted and uninformed,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his briefing in New Delhi, describing them as interference in the electoral practices of a fellow democracy. “This is an approach that undermines democracy itself,” he added.
The ambassador’s reply
India’s Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, had already answered her on X on Thursday, US time. “The remarks by Rep. Jayapal on India’s electoral and political processes are unacceptable interference,” he wrote. “India is a vibrant democracy, with robust, independent constitutional institutions,” he said, pointing to the country’s long record of free and fair elections. He added that he was open to a constructive conversation with her.
Jayapal was born in Chennai and has chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She has clashed with New Delhi before, notably over a 2019 House resolution on communication curbs in Kashmir.
The roll revision at home
The Election Commission is carrying out a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across the country in phases, and the exercise has been fought over in courts and on the streets. The Commission says lists of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters were displayed publicly and shared with political parties, and that anyone whose name was dropped can apply to be enrolled again at any time.