Muslims relegated due to Hindutva extremists' activism: Amartya Sen

Kolkata: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said that Indian Muslims are sometimes pushed into disadvantaged positions due to the activism of increasingly emboldened Hindutva extremist groups. He said that minority communities are facing difficulties in getting their rights, including their voting rights, respected, PTI reported.

Amartya Sen voiced deep unease over the SIR process in West Bengal, warning that the exercise is being conducted with “undue haste” and may jeopardise democratic participation, particularly with the assembly elections approaching in a few months.

The economist, speaking to PTI from Boston, reflected on the democratic value of electoral roll revisions and the circumstances under which they can strengthen voting rights.

He stressed that such an exercise must be conducted with care and adequate time, which he believes are “missing” in Bengal's case.

“A thorough review of electoral rolls done carefully with adequate time can be a good democratic procedure, but this is not what is happening in West Bengal at this time," Sen said.

“The SIR is being done in a hurry, with inadequate time for people with voting rights to have sufficient opportunity to submit documents to vindicate their entitlement to vote in the coming assembly elections. This is both unjust to the electorate and unfair to Indian democracy,” he said.

Speaking of his experience during the special intensive revision in Bengal, Sen said time pressure was evident even among poll officials.

“Sometimes, the officials of the Election Commission themselves seem to lack enough time.

“When they questioned my right to vote from my home constituency in Santiniketan – from where I have voted earlier, and where my name, address and other details are registered in official records – they questioned me about my deceased mother's age at my date of birth, even though, as a voter herself, my mother's details, like mine, were stored also in their own official records,” he said.

The celebrated economist described the documentation challenges he encountered, noting that these difficulties are common for many Indians born in rural areas.

“Like many Indian citizens born in rural India (I was born in the then village of Santiniketan), I do not have a birth certificate, and my eligibility to vote required further paperwork to be presented on my behalf,” he said.

Although the issue was eventually resolved, Sen expressed concern for citizens who lack similar assistance.

“EC should not insist on a faulty arrangement and force our proud democracy to commit an unnecessary error, no matter who benefits,” he said.

On the sections most vulnerable to being excluded during the SIR, Sen pointed to the structural disadvantages faced by the poor.

“An obvious answer must be the underprivileged and the poor. The documents needed for being allowed into the new electoral roll are often difficult to obtain for the underdogs of society,” he said.

“The class bias that may show up in the necessary requirement of getting and showing particular documents in order to qualify to enter the new voters' list will tend to work against the indigent,” Sen said.

He also flagged concerns about the broader climate in which voting rights are exercised.