4 min readApr 23, 2026 01:56 PM IST
First published on: Apr 6, 2026 at 04:20 PM IST
Being associated with one of the busiest professions, I cannot give special time and attention to personal and family life. I am always occupied with tending to patients, and it has become the ultimate vow of life to put a smile on their faces. Having devoted myself to the service of the country through such a career, I was shocked to learn that my name was under adjudication in the voter list — that is, I was a “doubtful” voter.
I was somewhat confident, and hopeful, that this mistake would be corrected after the submission of all my educational qualifications, pre-independence land deeds of the present homestead, etc. But that’s not what happened: I was declared an invalid and illegal voter even after submitting all these papers, including my grandparents’ names and great-grandfather’s names, which appear in the 1952 electoral rolls, with no mistakes anywhere. I cannot accept this. I’m filled with resentment over this, and at the thought of how it will affect me professionally. It is really difficult to understand what the judicial officers — whose work I otherwise admire — are doing.
Haji Kalimuddin, the father of my great-grandfather, Hazi Riyajuddin, was born in 1845 in a village called Debipur. My family gave their all for Independence; yet, today we hear ourselves labelled as Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and so forth. As painful and distressing as the exclusion of our names from the voter rolls may be, what is infinitely more agonising is this labelling.
This painful stigma of being called an “illegal voter” — resulting from the deletion of names from the voter list — was not imposed solely upon me. While the names of three members of my immediate family — my parents and one brother — are still on the voter list, the names of five others — including a brother who is a doctor, another who is a pharmacist and a differently-abled sister — have been erased. There is simply no way to comprehend how the names of my parents and one brother remain included in the voter list, while the rest of us have been deleted, despite the submission of all ECI-listed valid documents.
A police sub-inspector from my village has served in the West Bengal Police for a remarkable 37 years. Currently, he is stationed in Birbhum, where he is overseeing the route marches of the Central Forces. Yet, he has been excluded from the list on the grounds that he is allegedly an “illegal voter” — even though the names of his two daughters were included in the list by linking them directly to him. What kind of injustice is this?
Another individual — a member of the Border Security Force hailing from my village — is currently posted in Odisha. Although the names of his grandfather and great-grandfather appear in the 1952 voter list, his own name has been deleted. Even those who serve to protect the nation have not been spared. Through the operations of this exercise, people’s sentiments and aspirations have been toyed with in a reckless manner. Another elderly woman from my village has been casting her vote for 55 years. Her name appears in the 2002 voter list. Nevertheless, she was summoned for a hearing on the grounds that a mismatch existed.
The SIR represents a noble undertaking; yet, by being executed in an unplanned and unscientific manner, it has been reduced to a farcical and distressing process. The SIR in Bengal terrorises the common voters, snatching their voting rights. They are now being instructed to file appeals before a tribunal. Why should an innocent voter be compelled to run around seeking recourse from a tribunal? Why must they be subjected to such punishment when they have committed no offence whatsoever? Does a democracy offer no remedy for such injustices?
The writer is a gynaecologist posted at Murshidabad Medical College & Hospital, Berhampore, Murshidabad, West Bengal
This painful stigma of being called an “illegal voter” — resulting from the deletion of names from the voter list — was not imposed solely upon me. 
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