'Challenge you to debate': Rahul Gandhi interrupts Shah's SIR address
What's the story
The Lok Sabha witnessed a heated exchange between Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi during a debate on the SIR. The debate, centered around electoral reforms, took a turn when Gandhi interrupted Shah's speech. "I challenge you to have a debate," he said, to which Shah replied, "I will decide the order of my speech, I decide what to speak."
Shah
'Double standards will not work'
Responding to Gandhi's address on Tuesday, Shah said, "Opposition leader...had dropped a nuclear bomb on November 5. But the (controversial) voter lists numbers had already been existing in Haryana...Bihar voter Minta Devi herself revealed that she made a mistake in filling out the online form." "When you win, you wear new clothes and take the oath, When you win elections, the Election Commisison is great; when you lose, EC is incompetent, such double standards will not work."
Counterarguments presented
Shah addresses allegations of voter list manipulation
Shah also responded to the Congress leader's accusations of voter list manipulation, specifically referring to the Congress leader's claim about 501 votes being registered at one house in Haryana. He termed the allegations baseless and said they have been cleared by the Election Commission. Shah said the Election Commission clarified that house number 265 is not a small house but an ancestral plot where several families live.
Clarification issued
Election Commission clarifies on Haryana house number
"And multiple generations of one family live together. This numbering system has been the same since the time a Congress government was elected...This is not a fake house," Shah said. He also said that for the past four or five months, the opposition has been spreading lies about the SIR in an attempt to mislead the country. He defended the ongoing SIR exercise, asking if a democracy in any country will be safe if infiltrators decide the PM or CM.
Twitter Post
'SIR is nothing but sanitisation of voter list'
#WATCH | While speaking on SIR, in Lok Sabha, Union HM Amit Shah says, "...Can democracy in any country be safe if infiltrators decide the PM of the country and CM of a state? No...SIR is nothing but the sanitisation of voter list. I believe this hurts the political goals of a… pic.twitter.com/5YKFt59DnK
— ANI (@ANI) December 10, 2025
Retort
3 types of 'vote chori'
According to him, there are three types of vote chori. "First, when a person is not eligible, meaning they do not meet the required qualifications, but still becomes a voter, it is considered Vote theft. Second, when someone wins an election through improper means, it is also considered Vote theft. Third, when someone defies the mandate of the people, that is, if a person obtains a position contrary to the public's choice, it is likewise a form of Vote theft.."
Family
Don't interrupt: Shah to Gandhi
Taking a dig at Gandhi, Shah said he talks about 'vote chori' when some families (referring to the Nehru-Gandhi family) were "generational vote chors." When Gandhi tried to interrupt his speech again, Shah retorted, "When senior leaders speak, don't interrupt." He also said tha the first SIR was conducted in 1952, when Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister. "Then it happened in 1957 when Nehru was there, the third happened in 1961 and Nehru was there."