In her third letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar since the beginning of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged the ongoing drive has turned into an exercise to exclude voters rather than correct records, and has led to 77 deaths, four suicide attempts, and 17 hospitalisations.
“The hearing process has become largely mechanical, driven purely by technical data and completely devoid of the application of mind, sensitivity and human touch,” Banerjee wrote in the three-page letter.
She said that the exercise’s aim seemed “neither of correction nor of inclusion… but solely of deletion and of exclusion”, alleging that the process undermines the democratic and constitutional framework.
At the end of the typed letter, Banerjee added a handwritten note, “Though I know you won’t reply or clarify. But (it is) my duty to inform you (of) the details.”
“It is shocking that an exercise which should have been constructive and productive has already seen 77 deaths with 4 attempts to suicide and 17 people falling sick and necessitating hospitalisation. This is attributed to fear, intimidation, and disproportionate workload due to the unplanned exercise undertaken by ECl,” the letter said.
Drawing attention to the summoning of eminent personalities, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, poet Joy Goswami, actor and MP Deepak Adhikari, cricketer Mohammed Shami, and a seer of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Banerjee wrote, “Does this not amount to sheer audacity on the part of the ECI?”
Alleging harassment of women electors, she wrote, “Women electors who have shifted to their matrimonial homes and changed their surnames after marriage are being questioned and summoned for hearings to prove their identity. This not only reflects complete lack of social sensitivity but also constitutes a grave insult to women and genuine voters. Is this how a constitutional authority treats half of the electorate?”
The chief minister further alleged that observers and micro-observers, many without adequate training, were acting beyond their mandate, with some verbally abusing citizens and branding them “Desh, Drohi”. “The ECl expects the State to provide security to these so-called observers at a time when the State police is already heavily deployed for the Gangasagar Mela, and its primary duty is to protect the citizens and not to shield the so-called observers,” Banerjee wrote.
Raising concerns over technical and administrative irregularities, she wrote, “It has been reported that the portal being used for West Bengal is apparently different from that used in other states. The options initially provided for disposal of such cases are being altered from the backend in an erratic manner, causing serious confusion among the official machinery engaged in this. This amounts to a deliberate and clandestine attempt to disenfranchise eligible voters of the state.”
Urging the EC to take corrective action, she added, “Though it is already very late, hope good sense prevails, and appropriate corrective actions are taken from your end to minimise the harassment, inconvenience and agony of the common citizen of the state.”