‘Irrational’, ‘alarming’: Opposition on former editor’s passport row | India Information
4 min learnKolkata, New DelhiJun 29, 2026 05:55 AM IST
The Opposition has hit out on the Centre after The Telegraph’s former editor, R Rajagopal, alleged that his passport had not been renewed following the deletion of his identify from the electoral rolls in West Bengal in the course of the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter record.
In a press release on Sunday, the Editors Guild of India condemned the forms’s “remedy” of Rajagopal, who mentioned in a notice on social media that he missed his daughter’s wedding ceremony in the USA as a result of he didn’t possess an energetic passport.
On Sunday, Rajagopal advised The Indian Categorical that he obtained a name from the police within the first week of April. “I believe, within the first week of April, a police official known as me from the Ballygunge police station and summoned me for police verification. He advised me to hold my paperwork. After I requested which doc, he advised me, ‘Voter ID card.’ Then I advised him, ‘However my identify has been deleted from the electoral roll on March 27,’” Rajagopal mentioned.
Efforts to resume his passport since then have been unsuccessful, and he has obtained an appointment to look earlier than the Regional Passport Workplace (RPO) on July 17, he mentioned. A senior police officer, who didn’t want to be recognized, confirmed that Rajagopal’s utility is now with the RPO because the police couldn’t confirm it.
The Indian Categorical reached out to the Kolkata Police and the state Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) workplace for an official touch upon the matter, however didn’t obtain a response.
Rajya Sabha MP and Congress chief Vivek Tankha advised The Indian Categorical, “I discover this so irrational. His (Rajagopal’s) identify has been deleted from the voter record. If somebody asks me to deliver my father’s matriculation certificates, I wouldn’t have the ability to discover it. I’m 69 years previous and won’t have the ability to find my very own matriculation certificates as a result of it may be with the Bar Council.”
CPI’s Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar known as the incident “alarming”, telling The Indian Categorical, “India isn’t the Sangh Parivar’s karayala (office). Rajagopal’s expertise is an eye-opener.”
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CPI(M) common secretary M A Child posted on X, “Proper from the outset, the CPI(M) had warned that the SIR train would disenfranchise the poor and weak sections of our nation. However now, even an editor of reputation and an acclaimed journalist like R Rajagopal has been denied his proper to vote.”
Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose known as the incident “surprising and heart-rending”.
“If this may occur to R. Rajagopal, former Editor of a distinguished newspaper, one can think about what residents with far fewer sources are going via. Deleted from the electoral roll. Denied the precise to vote. Passport renewal stalled for 100 days due to an hostile police report linked to that deletion. Compelled to overlook his personal daughter’s wedding ceremony overseas. After which advised a passport is ‘not proof of citizenship’. That is what the sluggish erosion of primary citizenship rights seems like,” she posted on X.
In a press release, the Editors Guild mentioned it “condemns the style during which Rajagopal is being handled by the forms that will get to resolve who’s an Indian citizen and who isn’t”.
