FORMER EDITOR of ‘The Telegraph’ R Rajagopal said it has been 101 days since he completed his biometrics at the Kolkata Passport Office, but still hasn't received his passport. The opposition-Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Congress have attacked the center after R Rajagopal’s name was removed from West Bengal's electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which resulted in his passport renewal being put on hold. 

The opposition leaders said that the plight of Rajagopal reflects  a wider erosion of citizens' rights. The SIR in West Bengal has sparked political and legal controversy after lakhs of electors were deleted from the rolls. In October 2025, R Rajagopal’s passport expired and he applied for a passport renewal on February 27, 2026. He completed his biometric formalities at the passport office on March 19, 2026 in just half an hour.

R Rajagopal claimed to be in “state of civic uncertainty”

In a thorough statement, Rajagopal claimed to be in a "state of civic uncertainty" and to have spent a significant amount of time rebuilding family records dating back decades after his passport renewal was delayed due to a negative police report that was connected to his exclusion from the electoral rolls. He is now asking for clarity on why his passport is not being renewed after completing all the formalities. He said his intention was not to portray himself as a victim but he wants to highlight the predicament faced by common people in our country.

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“In March 2026, my name was deleted from the Ballygunge constituency electoral roll in Kolkata, apparently because the Special Intensive Revision process could not trace either my name or that of my late father in the 2002 voters’ list, " Rajagopal said. His father was a retired professor and former State Secretary of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in Kerala, who died in 2016. He further added, “I am unable to understand how a conscientious voter like him could have been absent from the rolls.”

Rajagopal said, “Like nearly 27 lakh other residents of West Bengal, I was also excluded on account of what were described as ‘logical discrepancies’. No reason was furnished even after I submitted my matriculation certificate, and my appeal is now pending before one of the tribunals constituted pursuant to the Supreme Court’s directions.”

He further added: “More distressing has been the fate of my passport renewal application. Although I completed all the required biometric formalities on March 19, 2026, police verification has not been cleared because my name is no longer part of the electoral roll.”

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Incident drew various Political reactions

The opposition leaders connected Rajagopal's experience to the controversial SIR exercise that was conducted by the Election Commission in West Bengal prior to the Assembly elections sparking strong political reactions to the post by a former Telegraph editor.

Sagarika Ghose, TMC Rajya Sabha MP described this incident as “shocking” and “heart-rending”. “If this can happen to R Rajagopal, imagine what ordinary citizens with far fewer resources are enduring,” she posted on her X account.

Vivek Tankha, Congress Rajya Sabha MP, said that this episode reflected "the level of irrationality" the country had reached. Tankha posted on his X account, "Are we determined to remove the tag of a nation governed by the rule of law so assiduously curated by our founding fathers! What a pity!!"

(Edited by Khushboo Singh)

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