Kolkata, 14 July

“I feel that I am a half citizen, or there is some inadequacy in me compared to others,” says R Rajagopal, former Telegraph editor.

The wordsmith, known for his fearlessly tongue-in-cheek headlines, found himself making headlines after Kolkata Police refused to renew his passport. This was after SIR deleted his name from the voters’ list.

He ended up missing his daughter’s wedding in the US.

“Hobena,” the authorities told him. It means “won’t happen” in Bengali.

Rajagopal asked, “What happened?”

“Unless your name is restored to the voters’ list, we cannot send clearance,” he said.

“We don't know which document proves citizenship,” Rajagopal told Rush Mukherjee of Salar News. 

“We may have to rely on a collection of documents. The more the documents, the more difficult it will be for the marginalised and the poor, and those living in remote areas.”

Rajagopal is among the 90 lakh people who were deleted from the electoral rolls.

Bengal SIR took place just before the Assembly elections that changed the government for the first time in 15 years. BJP cut the ground from under TMC’s feet.

He has appealed the deletion at the tribunal and is waiting to hear from them.

Election Commission (EC) started the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to revise the voters’ list. EC says it is to check that migrants do not vote in more than one place, and those dead aren’t on the list. Rajagopal has been voting in Bengal for almost two decades.

After many headlines and much outrage, Rajagopal received his renewed passport on 4 July.

Rajagopal’s ordeal makes one wonder, if this can happen to the editor of a national newspaper, it can happen to anyone; and not every story makes headlines.

There is one matter central to his ordeal –  can SIR deletion affect our rights as citizens?

Here are excerpts from the interview:

Could you walk us through what happened when you applied for your passport renewal? 

I applied for my passport renewal on 27 February as it had expired in October 2025. I was given a biometrics appointment on 19 March. The next day the tracker said the file has been sent to Ballygunge police station - I'm under their jurisdiction. After a few days, I was called to the police station and told to bring my voter ID card.

I told them my name has been deleted under SIR. They said, okay, you bring your matriculation certificate, father's death certificate, Aadhaar card, PAN card, and a utility bill like an electricity bill, where your name and address is clearly written. So, I did that.

After several days, I was told I should go to something called the Security Control Organisation (SCO). They report to Kolkata Police Special Branch. 

It was 17 June, and there were many people like me there. When I was standing in the hall, they asked who is Rajagopal. They said, “Hobena” (Won’t happen in Bengali).

I asked, what happened? He told me unless your name is restored to the voters list, we cannot send clearance. 

I asked them, under which law or government order or memo are you saying this? Because the Election Commission clearly told the Supreme Court that the SIR data can be used only for including or removing somebody from the voters list. The court said that if there are any citizenship issues, those names should be sent to the Union Home Ministry, which will take a decision. 

I asked how can the city police take the decision that the Home Ministry is supposed to take? And he said, ‘no, no, this is what our procedure is. Your name has to be there in the voters list.’ 

What was the reason given for deleting your name from the voters’ list?

No reason has been given to me officially. That's another big complaint many people have. I think there must be some spelling mismatch with the records available with the Election Commission (EC). I have filed an appeal against it that is pending before one of the 19 tribunals. I don't know when it will come up.

Tell us about the deletion from the voters’ list.

The deletion is a multistage affair. 

First, you have to map yourself with either your name or your parent's name or your grandparent's. One of them has to be there in the 2002 lists. If it's not there, then you're put into something called the adjudication list. 

Then once you've been put under adjudication, you have to give one of the 11 documents prescribed by the EC. I gave my matriculation certificate. The details in it are all handwritten by different officials in 1983, so they could very well have made a mistake while writing a name. Because in India, there are no standardised English spellings for Indian names. The same name can be spelt in multiple ways.

Is there a feeling of uncertainty now? 

Definitely. There is a huge uncertainty because I was not allowed to vote. I've been a voter here (Kolkata) since 2010. That is a big blow to me. I may not have voted, but that is my decision. This time, I could not take that decision. Somebody else took my choice. That hurts.

Do you think a lot of Indians could be forced to prove their citizenship and may lack a way to do so? 

Yes, millions of people won't have enough documentation to prove that. First of all, we don't know which document proves citizenship. So, we may have to rely on a collection of documents. The more the documents you ask for, the more difficult it will be for the marginalised and the poor and those living in remote areas. 

Many citizens don't have the resources or financial support to get legal help to challenge such issues.

Yes… It’s a valid point, fighting a legal case in a high court or the Supreme Court is expensive. You need to spend money. And many people won't be able to afford it. So, this is not a solution.

As a senior journalist, were you surprised that this happened despite possessing multiple government IDs?

Yes. I need only one explanation. On what basis, which law or the government order or memo have they linked SIR deletion and passport renewal. If that is shown to me, then my complaint is over. Then the next point comes, whether I agree with the government order or not. And if we don't agree with the government order, under democracy, we are free to challenge it before a judiciary.

My documents are like any other Indian citizen's. It's possible that in 2003, I may have decided not to enrol myself, because voting was never mandatory in this country. We have lived like this for 57 years… It involves a lot of paperwork and legwork even to get a small correction in a marksheet. 

Are you concerned that journalists or those who criticise the government could face scrutiny through SIR?

We have no evidence for that. But any unreasonable policy or law can be misused to target people you don't agree with. That fear and problem have always been there.  

SIR has begun in Karnataka. Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar warned that SIR deletion could lead to people losing out on government services. Do you think SIR deletion will deny welfare schemes to future generations?

I don't know how and why a Congress government can speak like this, because the legality of a decision like welfare being linked to the SIR outcome has not yet been tested. An organisation in West Bengal has moved the Calcutta High Court (on the matter). So we can comment on this only after the judiciary decides.

What advice would you give to people whose names may come under scrutiny during SIR?

I'm helpless, actually. I don't know what advice to give.

That is why I'm saying we should not waste any time. People, the civil society and others must persuade their elected representatives to take it up as early as possible to bring policy clarity. It's a primary responsibility of the executive. It can just issue a one-line statement saying whether SIR data can be applied to anything other than voters' lists. That will sort out the issue.

If the executive is not doing it, then the judiciary has to intervene. If that is not possible, then it has to be raised in the Parliament. These are the only three avenues open to us. 

If there is no policy clarity, this will continue to fester and traumatise a lot of people. There's a policy haze that has to be removed.