A senior journalist has come out with an account of his passport renewal having been denied for 100 days, and also as probably reason for that , the deletion of his name from the electoral during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in West Bengal.
R Rajagopal, former editor of The Telegram, and resident of Kolkatta found his name missing along with lakhs of other voters in West Bengal. He revealed that he completed his biometrics at the Kolkata passport office, but with sign of his passport being issued he says he now feels “voteless, passportless, kicked around like a football, like millions of Indians.”
In an interview he gave to Madhyamam daily, he said he and his wife Mini had duly submitted the SIR online as instructed by the BLO. " But my name was not in the 2002 Kolkata voter list. I was really surprised to find that my father, a Gandhian who had voted in all the elections and was at the forefront of the anti-liquor movement, was not in the 2002 Thiruvananthapuram voter list. Although my brother's name was there, it was not accepted in Bengal. Although my name and that of my parents were not in the 2002 list, I was relieved when I heard that I just need to produce one of the 11 documents mentioned by the Election Commission. I also submitted my matriculation certificate as proof of my birth in India. Yet, I was also excluded along with the 27 lakh people who were excluded in Bengal, citing 'logical discrepancy'. The appeal filed against this is still pending before the tribunal".
And because his passport expired, he could not make a trip to the US in time for the wedding of his only daughter living in San Francisco on April 17.
Rajagopal narrated the harrowing experience of the attempt to obtain a passport and the SIR listing. For the SIR, he recalled, "they asked me to come with documents like matriculation certificate, father's death certificate, PAN card, Aadhaar card, gas bill of the house where I live. I bought all of them. After a few days, they asked me to come to the Special Branch Office of the Kolkata Police. When I went to the SCO, they said that since my name was not in the SIR, I could not get a passport until my name was in the voter list. They kept kicking me like a football in the name of the SIR. One day, they asked me to go to the police station. From there, they asked me to go to the Security Control Organization. From there, they asked me to go to the Special Branch Office again. Then, they asked me to meet a senior officer. I came in front of that officer and saw many people who had not got police clearance, literally crying. It was a scary situation."
Eventually, he was unable to vote in his Ballygunge constituency in the recent election in West Bengal.
“This is what the slow erosion of basic citizenship rights looks like,” and questioned why such stories were being “invisibilised” by much of the mainstream media.
However, senior journalist Ravish Kumar questioned whether electoral rolls are being checked during passport verification and asked how many people’s passports had been affected because of voter list issues.
Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose also came out expressing surprise and protest at the denial of citizen's basic rights.
Although Rajagopal now lives in his native Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, he was along-time resident in Kolkata and his son was born there and his daughter grew up there for three months. " Why should I run away from here and apply for a passport in Thiruvananthapuram? I consider Bengal as my homeland. Then why should I run away from here? If I don't have a passport, let it be so. I won't apply for a passport except from Kolkata. There may be no problem in applying in Kerala. But that is not right. How long will we run like this? My permanent address is in Kolkata. Therefore, the police verification has to be done in Kolkata."
When a senior journalist like him is made to run from pillar to post in this manner, he wondered, what would be the plight of the millions of marginalised people deleted from SIR who may not be able to raise their voice against this injustice of SIR.
"It is like saying that a marriage certificate is not a document of marriage but only that both of them participated in the marriage. The liberal media, which criticized Dr. Manmohan Singh for ‘policy paralysis’ till 2014, does not see the ‘policy mutation’ that has taken place since the Modi government came to power in 2014. The Modi government has been constantly changing that policy by making a policy and misleading the court and other constitutional institutions. The SIR itself is the best example of this. The government told the court that the SIR is only for cleaning the voter list and the court itself said the same. But when my passport is blocked because my name is not in the SIR, that policy is changing." In other words, a citizen is denied passport because his name is not in the SIR.