Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in a letter to chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday, said asking Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to appear before poll officials to establish his credentials as part of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) was a matter of “profound shame”.
“It is a matter of profound shame that Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen — a nonagenarian and a globally respected intellectual — has been asked to appear before ECI officials to establish his credentials,” wrote Mamata in what was her fourth missive to CEC Kumar since November 20.
Before this, her most recent letter to Kumar was on January 3, condemning the ongoing SIR process in Bengal.
Election Commission officials on January 7 visited Pratichi, the ancestral home of the economist in Santiniketan, and served an SIR hearing notice to Sen, citing a “logical discrepancy” in the filled-up enumeration form.
According to the EC, the notice was issued because the age difference between Sen and his mother, Amita Sen, as calculated from data entries, was found to be less than 15 years.
Although Sen is abroad, his relatives and family friends in Santiniketan said they were surprised by the notice, as the 2002 electoral roll cited the age difference between Sen and his mother as 19 years, not 15.
Sen has been asked to prove his credentials on January 16. However, the Nobel laureate will not be required to attend the hearing physically, and documents may be submitted by a representative on his behalf to resolve the issue.
Mamata, in her letter, stated that the so-called “logical discrepancy” theory propagated by the EC was, in reality, illogical.
“Similarly, eminent and widely respected personalities such as renowned poet and awardee Joy Goswami, popular film actor and Member of Parliament Shri Deepak Adhikari, Mohammed Shami an international cricketer and the Maharaj of Bharat Sevashram Sangha have also been subjected to this unplanned, insensitive and inhuman process,” Mamata wrote. “Does this not amount to sheer audacity on the part of the ECI? These are only a few examples of known personalities. There are many more who have been put to such undue harassment.”
Since the SIR process began in Bengal, the Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, has repeatedly alleged that the process has resulted in widespread harassment of people.
On January 2, Trinamool national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek made three individuals walk on a ramp in Baruipur, claiming they had been marked as “dead voters” in the draft electoral roll.
In her Saturday letter, Mamata particularly highlighted the plight of women voters whose surnames had changed after marriage.
“Women electors who have shifted to their matrimonial homes and changed their surnames after marriage are being questioned and summoned for hearings to prove their identity. This not only reflects a complete lack of social sensitivity but also constitutes a grave insult to women and genuine voters. Is this how a constitutional authority treats half of the electorate?” asked the chief minister.
Mamata claimed that while the EC expected the Bengal government to provide security to the observers appointed by the poll panel, the state police were already heavily deployed for the Gangasagar Mela, and their primary duty was to protect ordinary citizens, not observers.
She also highlighted the difficulties faced by migrant workers during the SIR process, claiming these instances of harassment reflected a pattern.
“All this reflects a disturbing pattern of political bias and autocratic high-handedness by an institution that is expected to function as a constitutional authority. The ECI appears to have descended to a level that is difficult to comprehend and deeply alarming for any democratic society,” she wrote. “The objective seems neither of correction nor of inclusion in the electoral rolls, but solely of deletion and of exclusion. This is unprecedented, deeply unfortunate, and strikes at the very core of our democratic polity — one that thrives on the ideals and values enshrined in our Constitution.”
Mamata wrote that it was already very late but still demanded “corrective action” from CEC Kumar to “minimise the harassment” of people. She ended the letter with a handwritten note, saying: “Though I know you won’t reply or clarify, it is my duty to inform you the details.”
Reacting to this letter, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said Mamata “has realised what will happen in the 2026 elections”, implying her party would lose. He said such letters to the CEC had no meaning as the SIR process was “a routine exercise”.