'Conducted in Haste': Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen Expresses Concern Over SIR Process in West Bengal

Renowned economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, recently voiced significant reservations about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the state of West Bengal. Speaking to media agencies in Boston, Sen remarked, “A thorough review of electoral rolls done carefully with adequate time can be a good democratic procedure, but this is not what is happening in West Bengal at this time”.

“The SIR is being done in a hurry, with inadequate time for people with voting rights to have sufficient opportunity to submit documents to vindicate their entitlement to vote in the coming Assembly elections. This is both unjust to the electorate and unfair to Indian democracy,” he added.

Sen’s comment comes in the wake of already mounting controversies surrounding the poll-bound state of West Bengal which met with considerable opposition from the ruling party Trinamool Congress under CM Mamata Banerjee.

On Friday(January 23rd) , while addressing the public at an event held to celebrate the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mamata had claimed that over 110 people had died in West Bengal due to anxiety over the SIR process and 3-4 committing suicide everyday. She said, "The Election Commission of India will have to take responsibility for these deaths, the Government of India will also have to take responsibility.”

Mamata had also written a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar earlier this month, stating that she was“deeply shocked and disturbed” by what she described as the ECI’s approach, alleging that the revision exercise has turned into “relentless harassment of ordinary citizens.”

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