Chief Electoral Office of West Bengal says that the notice to the Nobel laureate was issued after the Electoral Roll Officers’ Network portal flagged a “logical discrepancy”…reports Asian Lite News
Several opposition leaders on Wednesday slammed the central poll panel over an SIR notice sent for a hearing to economist Amartya Sen.
CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby accused the Election Commission of India of “displaying absurd bureaucratism” and demanded a stop to the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists across states.
“India should be proud to have someone like Amartya Sen as its voter. Yet, the Election Commission is being petty, displaying absurd bureaucratism. Once again, the criticism that ECI isn’t behaving as expected by a constitutional body of such high stature is being proven right,” Baby said in a post on X.
“We reiterate our demand to stop this flawed SIR process, which is disenfranchising a large number of people,” he said.
“It is known to all that decades ago, the age of marriage was quite low in our country. For instance, I have been told that my mother got married when she was only 13 years old. We all would be familiar with many such cases in our families in the olden days,” he added.
RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, meanwhile, termed the notice “intellectual suicide.”
“The officials who asked Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for proof of voter status and citizenship made it clear that in this country, it is papers that are respected, not ideas,” Jha said in a post on X.
“The Indian who explained moral economy to the world is now being questioned whether he even belongs in India. This is not administrative ‘vigilance’ but evidence of our intellectual suicide,” he said.
“We have not moved forward in history; we have simply walked backwards and reached a point where the establishment is taking us into a blind well,” he said in his post in Hindi.
The Election Commission on Wednesday served a notice to Sen, a Nobel laureate, in connection with the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal, seeking a hearing of the 92-year-old on January 16 at his residence over logical discrepancies found in the enumeration form submitted by him, an official said.
Sen’s cousin acknowledged the receipt of the notice and said he would inform the academic about the development.
Amid claims of Amartya Sen being summoned over Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Chief Electoral Office of West Bengal has clarified that the notice to the Nobel laureate was issued after the Electoral Roll Officers’ Network (ERONET) portal flagged a “logical discrepancy”.
The Chief Electoral Office of West Bengal said that the age difference between Professor Sen, who is a voter in the Bolpur assembly constituency in West Bengal’s Birbhum, and his mother, Amita Sen, was less than 15 years.
It said that the notice for Amartya Sen was generated “in parity with the other discrepancy cases”.
“The Enumeration Form of Amartya Sen an overseas elector, was received by his family member Shantabhanu Sen who linked him with his mother Amita Sen. Since the age difference between the elector and his mother was less than 15 years, logical discrepancy was flagged by the ERO Net Portal,” the CEO West Bengal said in a post on X.
The authorities further clarified that since Professor Sen was over the age of 85, the concerned officials, along with the Booth Level Office (BLO), had visited his residence to complete the formalities.
“Notice was generated for Dr Amartya Sen in parity with the other discrepancy cases. Since the elector is aged 85 years plus, ERO/AERO along with BLO have visited his residence and completed the formalities,” the CEO West Bengal said.
This explanation comes after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) criticised the move, calling it a “shameful farce”. The TMC alleged that the ECI is targeting prominent personalities from Bengal.
“A Nobel laureate should be above any suspicion, right? But what if he’s a Bengali? Then he’ll be slapped with hearing notices as if he were some common criminal. This is the cynical, shameful farce of BJP and ECI’s SIR process. They will drag our icons through the mud, tarnish our pride, and stoop to any low if it serves their Bangla-Birodhi agenda of division and degradation,” TMC posted on X.
Congress also criticised the ECI for asking Nobel laureate Amartya Sen “to prove his citizenship”.
