Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Monday urged the West Bengal government to restore the passport of senior journalist and former editor of The Telegraph newspaper, R Rajagopal.
In a statement on X, he said he had requested his West Bengal counterpart Suvendu Adhikari to personally intervene after reports that Rajagopal’s passport renewal had been held up following an adverse police verification report from the Kolkata Police.
“I have written to the Chief Minister of West Bengal requesting his urgent intervention in the reported denial of passport renewal to renowned journalist R. Rajagopal. According to reports, his passport renewal has been held up following an adverse police verification report from the Kolkata Police. I sincerely hope the matter is examined fairly and resolved," he said.
Rajagopal, a Malayali journalist who served as editor of the Kolkata-based national daily, was reportedly removed from the electoral rolls of Kolkata’s Ballygunge Assembly constituency during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) undertaken earlier this year.
He has challenged the deletion before the appropriate tribunal. According to reports, the Regional Passport Office subsequently asked him to appear for verification, but scheduled the appointment only for July 17, preventing him from travelling to California to attend his daughter’s wedding.
In his letter to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Satheesan said, “I understand that the adverse report is based on the deletion of his name from the electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision. While the electoral issue is being dealt with through the appropriate appeal process, I am informed that the police report has had the effect of delaying the renewal of his passport."
“Rajagopal Ramadas is a renowned journalist who has been based in Kolkata for the past three decades. He has had a distinguished career in journalism spanning more than three decades, including serving as editor of The Telegraph. He is also the son of Professor V Ramadas, who served as state secretary of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in Kerala and was widely respected for his public service," the letter added.
Leader of the Opposition in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan also called the development shocking, saying it raised serious questions about the consequences of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
“If this is the experience of a journalist of Rajagopal’s stature, one can only imagine the plight of ordinary citizens," he said in a social media post.
He alleged that Rajagopal may have been targeted because of his longstanding criticism of the BJP, and accused the Centre of using SIR as a tool to selectively disenfranchise citizens.
Meanwhile, the former Telegraph editor said like nearly 27 lakh other residents of West Bengal, he was 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. As a consequence, I was unable to vote in the recent election. More distressing has been the fate of my passport renewal application," he wrote in a column for a news portal.
“Despite submitting several alternative documents, I have been informed that they are insufficient. In fact, June 27 was the 100th day since my biometrics for passport renewal were taken. I was formally informed last week by the passport-issuing authority that Kolkata Police sent an adverse report, citing the deletion of my name from the voters’ list," he said.
The Editors Guild of India also condemned the incident.
“Rajagopal’s case highlights the misery that millions of Indians are being put through because of the SIR exercise. If an influential public figure like Rajagopal could be stripped of his voting rights, the plight of ordinary Indians was likely to be far worse," it said.
