‘What if we’re not seen as Indians?’: Flagged by BJP, villagers in Jharkhand worry - indianexpress.com

**Jharkhand villagers fear loss of citizenship status after BJP‑issued “flag”**

*Ranchi, Jharkhand* – A cluster of villages in the state’s northern districts has been rattled by a newly disclosed “flag” issued by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to local residents, according to the *Indian Express*. The flag, a handwritten notation on the voters’ identification card, reportedly marks households as “non‑Indian” and signals that their names may be deleted from the electoral roll. Villagers, many of whom belong to tribal communities, say the notice has left them anxious about losing not only their voting rights but also the broader sense of belonging to the nation.

The controversy comes amid a wave of legal challenges across India concerning alleged mass deletions from the Supplementary Electoral Rolls (SIR). Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal has approached the Supreme Court, claiming that systematic “bulk deletions” are being used to disenfranchise minority and tribal voters (The Hindu, Daily Pioneer). In Odisha, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has accused the state election officials of misusing Form‑7 to target minority voters, demanding intervention from the Chief Electoral Officer (Orissa Post). Similar grievances have been voiced in Uttarakhand, where Newslaundry reported that BJP agents allegedly filed forged objections against Muslim voters. The Jharkhand episode is therefore being viewed as part of a wider pattern of alleged electoral engineering.

BJP representatives in Jharkhand have denied any official policy of marking or removing voters on communal grounds. A senior party functionary told reporters that the “flag” is a misinterpretation of an administrative check meant to verify residency documentation, not a verdict on citizenship. Nonetheless, local activists and the tribal rights group *Jal‑Swaraj* have filed a petition with the state election commission, urging an immediate review of the flagged entries and demanding transparency in the SIR verification process. The matter is expected to reach the judiciary within weeks, as the Supreme Court’s pending hearing on the SIR deletions could set a precedent for how such cases are handled nationwide.