Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, days after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was served a hearing notice as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list, calling it “a matter of profound shame”.
“It is a matter of profound shame that Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, a nonagenarian and a globally respected intellectual, has been asked to appear before ECI officials to establish his credentials,” she wrote.
Banerjee also cited cases of poet Joy Goswami, Tollywood actor and TMC MP Deepak Adhikari, cricketer Mohammed Shami, and a monk of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, who have been sent hearing notices too.
“Does this not amount to sheer audacity on the part of the ECI? These are only a few examples of known personalities. There are many more who have been put to such undue harassment,” she wrote.
This is the second letter the chief minister has written to the poll panel chief this month. On January 3, she wrote to the CEC alleging that the SIR was flawed and that many may lose their right to vote as a result.
She also raised questions over the role of observers and micro-observers appointed by the poll panel, alleging that some were acting beyond their mandate.
“There are disturbing reports of common citizens being branded by some observers as ‘Desh Drohi’ and subjected to verbal abuse without any provocation,” she wrote.
“It is also learnt that so-called logical discrepancies, which are in reality entirely illogical, are being selectively targeted in some constituencies only, with political bias,” she added.
She ended the three-page typed letter with a footnote: “Though I know you won’t reply or clarify. But it is my duty to inform you of the details.”
