Mamata urges people not to get provoked by SIR, says no legitimate citizen will be left out

Emphasising that she will not permit a single legitimate citizen to be branded an ‘outsider’, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday (October 30, 2025) appealed to citizens of the State not to get provoked by the ongoing exercise of Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

“We are witnessing the tragic consequences of the BJP’s politics of fear, division and hate. Within 72 hours of the Election Commission’s announcement of the SIR exercise in Bengal — An exercise bulldozed through at the BJP’s behest. One avoidable tragedy after another has occurred,” Ms. Banerjee posted on social media.

The Trinamool Congress chairperson who had earlier highlighted the death of 57-year-old Pradip Kar, who according to her had left a note that read, “NRC is responsible for my death”, added on Thursday that 95-year-old Khitish Majumder from Kotwali, Paschim Medinipur living with his daughter in Ilambazar, Birbhum ended his life, “gripped by the fear that he and his family might be dispossessed of their land”.

Ms. Banerjee said such incidents were not just tragedy but “betrayal of humanity itself”.

“Who will answer for these avoidable, politically inflicted tragedies? Will the Home Minister accept responsibility? Will the BJP and its allies, under whose watch this fear psychosis has spread, find the courage to speak out? A 95-year-old man, who has given his life to this soil, forced to die to prove he belongs to it. What could be a deeper wound on the nation’s conscience?” she asked.

The Chief Minister, who had dubbed the SIR as National Register of Citizens (NRC) through back door, reiterated that her government “will not allow NRC to be implemented in Bengal — neither through the front door, nor through the back door”. “Our Maa-Mati-Manush Sarkar stands with you….We will not permit a single legitimate citizen to be branded an ‘outsider’,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday raised allegations of 2002 voter list, on the basis of which SIR is being conducted, has been manipulated. Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh cited reference of polling booths in Cooch Behar Natabari Assembly seat and Ashoknagar in North 24 Parganas, where there are discrepancies in the 2002 voter list, which has been uploaded and which has been in public domain.

The Trinamool Congress leadership also held a protest at Panihati, the locality where Pradip Kumar Kar used to reside. Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee had on Wednesday visited the residence of the deceased and called for protest under the banner of “Justice for Pradeep Kar”. “Justice for Pradeep Kar is not just a demand, it is a promise: that Bengal will stand united, fearless, and determined against any force that seeks to divide and intimidate,” the Trinamool Congress said on social media.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised on the veracity of the suicide note of Padeep Kar, with a section of neighbours of the deceased saying that he did not have no two fingers in his right hand. The family members of Pradip Kumar Kar filed a police complaint over the death at the local police station.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari said that all these allegations of suicide were false. “ If anyone is struck by lightning or falls off a tree, they are going to blame the SIR. The exercise is being carried in 12 States, whys is the Chief Minister and her nephew only feeling the heat,” Mr. Adhikari said.

BJP leader Amit Malviya in a social media post said “if Mamata Banerjee insists on weaving tales to fuel fear and stall SIR, she should at least make them logical”. “Why would a 95-year-old man, born in 1930 and an Indian by birth, take his own life over SIR? Even if, by any logic, he was not an Indian citizen post-Partition and later migrated to India, he was automatically eligible for Indian citizenship under the CAA, being a Hindu,” the BJP IT head said.