“My name has been deleted along with my daughter’s. Why? Will my wife go alone to cast vote from my family?” asked Tollygunge resident Sudip Roychoudhury, as reported in TOI, (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/many-unsure-of-voting-rights-as-sir-deletions-split-families/articleshow/129808477.cms, accessed 29 March, 2026).
“Calcutta High Court’s retired judge and West Bengal Waqf Board chairperson Shahidullah Munshi claimed that his name has been deleted after judicial scrutiny of the electoral rolls, and has decided to move an appellate tribunal.
Describing the situation as distressing, he said, “So far, only my name has been deleted, while the names of my wife and son are still under consideration. This is extremely humiliating and amounts to harassment. I do not understand how the decision was taken or on what basis my name was removed.” (https://dailypioneer.com/news/retired-hc-judge-to-move-tribunal-after-name-removed-from-bengal-voter-list, accessed 29 March, 2026).
I cite only two reported cases to show how SIR is fragmenting homes across West Bengal. Such unfortunate instances can be easily multiplied. But, that is not my point. What I want to focus is that fabrics of families are being torn apart by the SIR exercise. What happened with Roychoudhury family and Munshi family, also happened with lakhs of families spreading across the landscape of West Bengal. Very few families remain untouched by this chaos and conspiracy.
In a family, a brother can vote, another cannot; mother can vote, father cannot; nephew can vote, uncle cannot; sister can vote, her brother cannot, son can vote, mother cannot. In my family I along with other family members can vote, but my two brothers cannot. Households in Bengal are replete with such bizarre, unimaginable and horrible stories. Tension, anxiety, worry is everywhere.
If the educated people are finding difficulty in understanding terms like Enumeration Form, Logical Discrepancy, Mapped and Unmapped, Under Adjudication, Appellate Authority, Tribunal, etc. how can lakhs of illiterate working people of this land cope up with them? How can they understand and act according to the ECI guidelines? How can they collect and process documents as sought by the Commission? Many of them cannot write a b c. Can we expect from them to furnish the requisite documents, seemed to be stipulated not in keeping in mind our fellow citizens who eke somehow out a living, I mean hand to mouth at the end of a day. To pass a day with a full meal for the family is a dream to many of them. How can we expect from them such and such and papers?
People belonging to the same family, having the same documents are being treated differentially. Why? What goes wrong with the SIR exercise? Who are responsible for the SIR-related deaths? “West Bengal has reported the highest intensity of distress-related incidents since the enumeration exercise began. The state has witnessed fatalities among officials tasked with the work, as well as suicide attempts by citizens panicked by the sudden demand for documentation.” (https://www.newsclick.in/sir-leaves-suicide-trail-blos-buckle-under-pressure-citizens-panic, accessed 29 March, 2026).
There is another heart-wrenching twist to the Sir story. We want it or not, visibly or invisibly, SIR is a playing a havoc in our inter-community friendship ties. Who likes a fair-weather friend? No one. Who wants to be humiliated? People are living side by side, sharing the same life in the same village, locality or neighbourhood for years. But today the ties of friendship are weakening. It is under tremendous strain. And this is the targeted agenda set long ago by the divisive forces of our country. I find many friends and acquaintances are unwillingly relocating comfort zones in the wake of the ongoing SIR. This is a dangerous trend. People should be wary of it. Of course, personal is becoming political. But we should defeat the monsters by collective effort, shared strength.
Although fewer in number, many non-Muslims have also been victims of the SIR alleged conspiracy. And regardless of religion, gender, or caste, people have joined the anti-SIR protests.“Serious concerns about electoral transparency have emerged in parts of Bengal following large-scale deletions of names from voter lists, triggering protests in North 24-Parganas and Malda districts.” (https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/voter-list-deletions-spark-protests-in-bengal-hundreds-allege-exclusion-after-sir-hearings-prnt/cid/2153158#goog_rewarded , accessed 29 March, 2026)
Another dimension of SIR can be added here. Home is tearing apart. Fiendship ties are loosening. And the hollowness and deceit of the political parties are coming to the front.
As time passes, the political parties participating in the elections are increasingly exposing themselves over the SIR issue. Red, blue, green, saffron—none are left out. As soon as the election schedule was announced, these parties turned away from the problems of millions of genuine voters whose names were deleted and immersed themselves in the festival of elections.
In this hard times, would it be wrong to claim that those who present themselves as pro-people—their protests against the SIR conspiracy, such as sit-ins, rallies, press conferences, and other forms of agitation—were merely performative or symbolic displays of sympathy? Parties across the spectrum irrespective of their colours and credentials have quietly forgotten our fellow sisters and brothers, the deleted voters, and joined in glee the forthcoming celebration.
If our fellow citizens who have been deleted—who are genuine voters—are unable to exercise their right to vote, then on what moral basis should we participate in the election? Today they are facing this problem; what guarantee is there that we will not face the same tomorrow? Therefore, if this issue of Under Adjudication or Deleted Voter is not properly resolved, we have decided to boycott the election.
We cannot let our households fragmented in the name of SIR. We cannot let our age old ties of friendship severed by SIR operation. And at the same time, we cannot but expose hollowness and false claims of the ruling and opponent parties demanding to be pro-poor, pro-people.
(published in the Countercurrents)
