SIR: ‘Transparency of information must reach grassroots’

KOLKATA: From Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Bengali poet Joy Goswami to sports icons such as Manas Bhattacharya, Aloke Mukherjee, Compton Dutta, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla and Mehtab Hossain, the Election Commission’s SIR process has drawn questions from multiple quarters.

While several eminent personalities have sought exemption from personal hearings, citing their national stature, Bengali actor Parambrata Chatterjee on Tuesday approached the Election Commission along with members of Bangla Ekta Manch and submitted a deputation seeking clarity and corrective measures in the SIR process.

He was accompanied by Tanmoy Ghosh and Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Indradip Dasgupta and Abhishek Roy.

After meeting Commission officials, Parambrata said the organisation must ensure that correct and transparent information reaches even the last person in society so that no voter is forced to live in fear.

He said that widespread confusion had arisen because the SIR exercise was being linked to citizenship, triggering panic among the citizens.

“The SIR process getting linked with citizenship has created confusion and anxiety. This fear must be removed. Transparency of information has to reach the grassroots, especially the most marginalised,” Parambrata said.

Bangla Ekta Manch also placed several complaints before the Commission, alleging that uncertainty is growing among daily wage labourers, migrant workers, transgender persons and minority communities over their inclusion in the voter list. The group further argued that when widely respected figures such as Amartya Sen and Joy Goswami are subjected to scrutiny, public confidence in the electoral process is eroded.