Kerala chief minister V.D. Satheesan has written to his Bengal counterpart, seeking Suvendu Adhikari’s intervention over former The Telegraph editor R. Rajagopal’s passport renewal being allegedly held up because of his name being deleted in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“I have written to the chief minister of West Bengal, requesting his urgent intervention in the reported denial of passport renewal to renowned journalist R Rajagopal,” Satheesan wrote in his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Monday.
“I am writing to draw your attention to the case of Mr Rajagopal Ramadas,” the Kerala chief minister wrote in his letter to Adhikari, “whose passport renewal application… has reportedly been held up following an adverse verification report from Kolkata Police.
“I understand that the adverse report is based on the deletion of his name from the electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR),” Satheesan wrote.
“While the electoral issue is being dealt with through the appropriate appeal process, I am informed that the police report has had the effect of delaying the renewal of his passport. Mr. Rajagopal Ramadas is a renowned journalist who has been based in Kolkata for the past three decades. He has had a distinguished career in journalism spanning more than three decades, including serving as editor of The Telegraph.
“He is also the son of Professor V. Ramadas, who served as state secretary of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in Kerala and was widely respected for his public service,” Satheesan wrote.
Supreme Court had asked the Calcutta High Court to expedite the hearing process for appeals pending before the tribunals.
On Sunday, the Editors Guild of India had condemned the “bureaucracy that decides who is an Indian citizen and who is not.”
“Rajagopal’s plight highlights the misery that millions of Indians are being put through due to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission of India,” the Editors Guild said in its statement.
“If it could happen to someone like Rajagopal, a known public figure, the fate of others who have been similarly disenfranchised by a bureaucratic stroke of the pen, and lacking the voice to seek redressal can only be imagined,” the statement said.
Rajagopal had revealed in a note – shared on social media by others – that his name was deleted from the Ballygunge constituency in Calcutta during the SIR. His appeal is pending before the appellate tribunals set up to decide on the 27 lakh voters whose names were deleted before the Bengal Assembly polls.
His passport renewal – linked with the deletion from the electoral rolls – is also pending.
“Although I completed the biometric formalities on March 19, police verification has not been cleared because my name no longer appears on the electoral roll. Despite submitting several alternate documents, I have been informed that they are insufficient,” Rajagopal wrote, describing his situation as living in a “state of civic uncertainty.”
Thanks to his passport not being renewed, Rajagopal could not attend the wedding of his daughter in San Francisco on April 17.
“My intention has never been to project myself as a victim,” he wrote in his note, “Rather, I have wanted to underline a larger point: if someone who spent his professional life in journalism and edited a relatively known newspaper can encounter such difficulties, one can only imagine what the truly marginalised must endure.”
In May, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Election Commission can undertake a limited inquiry into an individual's citizenship for determining eligibility for inclusion in the electoral roll, but that such a determination cannot be treated as conclusive on the question of the individual’s citizenship.
In practice, that has not happened. Multiple people have reported being denied government benefits after their names were deleted in the SIR.
To cite just one example, Bengal’s newly elected BJP government has declared that those whose names were deleted in the SIR will not be eligible for the Rs 3,000 monthly payment.
