India halts senior journalist’s passport renewal after voter roll deletion

 NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A veteran Indian journalist says authorities have blocked the renewal of his passport after removing his name from the electoral roll during a controversial voter list revision.

Former The Telegraph editor R. Rajagopal detailed his experience in a public note, saying his name was deleted from the electoral roll in Kolkata’s Ballygunge constituency after officials conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were reportedly unable to trace his name, and his late father’s, in electoral records dating back to 2002.

The Special Intensive Revision is a nationwide exercise aimed at updating India’s electoral rolls by removing duplicate entries, deceased and ineligible voters. However, the process has drawn criticism from opposition parties, civil rights groups and sections of the media, who argue that genuine voters have also been removed because of documentation problems or administrative errors.

Rajagopal said he was among nearly 2.7 million residents of West Bengal whose names were removed from the voters’ list over what authorities described as “logical discrepancies.” He said he submitted his school matriculation certificate to establish his identity but received no explanation for the deletion. His appeal remains pending before a tribunal constituted following directions from the Supreme Court, leaving him unable to vote in the recent state election.

According to Rajagopal, the consequences extended beyond voting. He said his passport renewal application was stalled after police verification reportedly returned an adverse report because his name no longer appeared on the electoral roll. Rajagopal completed biometric formalities for the renewal on March 19 but officials later informed him that alternative identity documents he submitted were insufficient to complete the process.

He said June 27 marked the 100th day since his passport application entered the verification stage. Last week, he was informed that Kolkata Police had cited his removal from the voters’ list while submitting its verification report to passport authorities. Although he was asked to appear before the Regional Passport Office, the earliest available appointment was July 17.

As a result, Rajagopal said he was unable to attend his daughter’s wedding in San Francisco on April 17 despite holding a valid 10-year United States visa because he no longer had a valid passport.

The veteran journalist said he has spent months attempting to reconstruct decades-old family records to prove his eligibility while relying on assistance from friends and well-wishers. He said his intention was not to portray himself as a victim but to demonstrate how administrative decisions can affect ordinary citizens.

“If this can happen to a former newspaper editor, one can only imagine what the truly marginalized must endure,” he wrote, while also criticizing what he described as the silence of much of India’s mainstream media on the issue.

The case prompted reactions from several prominent journalists and politicians. Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Sagarika Ghose said the episode illustrated how the gradual erosion of citizenship-related rights could affect people’s daily lives, arguing that if a well-known editor could face such difficulties, citizens with fewer resources were likely confronting even greater obstacles.

Senior journalist Ravish Kumar questioned whether removal from electoral rolls was now being used during passport verification and asked how many other citizens may have encountered similar problems. Journalist Geeta Sheshu described the case as evidence of the wider consequences of voter list exclusions and warned that many people risk being deprived of fundamental civic rights because of administrative failures.