00:00If anything was to go by in the tone that was set on day one of the winter session,
00:05then we can well assume that the winter session is going to go down exactly on the lines of the monsoon session
00:12or even the budget session that was a complete washout.
00:16On day one, you had the Prime Minister who openly stated,
00:19listen, if you have to resort to theatrics and drama, Parliament is not the place.
00:23Just because after a defeat, you want to prove a point, don't use Parliament as a platform.
00:29The government, of course, setting the line, but the opposition hitting back.
00:35Today, on day one, the issue that resonated through Parliament was vote-chori and SIR.
00:41Parliament witnessed a stormy start to the winter session on Monday,
01:02with the battle over SIR taking centre stage from the very first hour.
01:06Ahead of the session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged members of Parliament
01:11to keep the focus on meaningful discussion and not on drama.
01:36Within minutes, the Congress hit back.
01:51It is a huge issue for democracy, what is going on, whether it's the election situation or the SIR.
02:01Speaking about issues, raising issues is not drama.
02:05Drama is not allowing discussion.
02:07Drama is not having a democratic discussion about issues that matter to the public.
02:11As Parliament convened, protests erupted in both houses.
02:16In the Lok Sabha, opposition MPs raised vote-chori slogans
02:20and demanded an immediate discussion on the SIR exercise.
02:25MPs stormed the well of the House, accusing the government of rushing the SIR process,
02:30not giving both level officers enough time and allegedly attempting voter suppression.
02:35The election commission fully well knows when the elections are due in each state.
02:55So why can't you start the process 12 months or 18 months earlier,
02:57adequately train the BLOs, give them resources.
03:00Why do it in a rushed manner in 30 days and put so much pressure on them?
03:03The government must be a little bit more accommodating,
03:05give us space to raise issues of our concern,
03:07and I'm sure everything will work smoothly after.
03:09Very dignified remarks as part of the...
03:13The government, however, maintained that the SIR is a routine electoral process
03:18and rejected all allegations.
03:20But as a political wall rages inside Parliament,
03:23the pressure on ground-level election staff is now turning deadly.
03:27Targets, deadlines, endless surveys.
03:30The opposition says frontline workers are being pushed beyond human limits.
03:35The poll body on Sunday extended the schedule for the ongoing SIR
03:38of electoral rolls across 12 states and union territories by a week.
03:45The poll panel said the extension was meant to ensure full transparency.
03:50Meanwhile, there are more reports of BLO deaths.
03:52In Moradabad, Booth-level officer Suresh Singh died by suicide.
04:03His families say he was under extreme stress due to SIR targets.
04:08This video, now widely circulating, shows him breaking down in tears.
04:12And his suicide note spells out the mental tone.
04:15The anger has now spilled onto the streets.
04:35In Kolkata, the Mathwa community marched the protest.
04:39The Congress has joined the stir,
04:41transforming the issue into a nationwide political confrontation.
04:44Shocking figures of BLO deaths are emerging.
04:51In just last one month, 33 Booth-level officers have died
04:54after the rollout of the Election Commission's SIR 2.0 system.
05:00What began as a revision of electoral rolls
05:03has now turned into a battle with real human consequences.
05:07As political parties trade charges in Parliament,
05:10families of overworked Booth-level officers are left to grieve in silence.
05:16The question now is not just about voter rolls,
05:19but also the price being paid to update them.
05:21Bureau Report, India Today.
05:25The question is not only that the restrainsake sell it themselves
05:27or the state of the theory financed people.
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