The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday issued a notice to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, seeking to conduct a hearing at his residence on January 16.
Amartya Sen, 92, is currently abroad. The notice was therefore served on a member of his family at Santiniketan, where his ancestral home is located. Officials said Sen’s cousin acknowledged receipt of the notice and assured that the economist would be informed.
Clarifying the circumstances, a senior official in the office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said that only a single notice had been issued. “There is only one notice served to Professor Sen. Some logical discrepancies were found in the enumeration form submitted by him, and that is why he has been asked to appear for a hearing,” the official said.
Given Sen’s age, the official added, the hearing would be conducted at his residence. “Since he is above 85 years, the Booth Level Officer concerned will visit him at home for the hearing, in accordance with Election Commission rules,” the official said.
According to election authorities, the notice was generated during the SIR process after a “logical discrepancy” was flagged in the enumeration form. Officials said the recorded age difference between Sen and his mother was found to be less than 15 years, triggering the requirement for verification.
The development sparked sharp political reactions in the state. The ruling Trinamool Congress accused the Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party of targeting eminent Bengalis under the guise of electoral revision. TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that issuing SIR notices to figures such as Sen amounted to “insulting the people of Bengal”, a charge that was rejected by both the BJP and the poll body.
The party escalated its criticism, accusing the ECI and the BJP of pursuing what it described as a “Bangla-Birodhi (anti-Bengal) agenda of division and degradation”. “A Nobel laureate should be above any suspicion, right? But what if he’s a Bengali? Then he will be slapped with hearing notices as if he were some common criminal,” the TMC said in a post on X. “Amartya Sen, whose groundbreaking work forms the bedrock of modern economics, who has brought unparalleled glory to Bengal and the nation, and whose ideas are taught across the world, has been issued a SIR hearing notice,” the party added.
Describing the SIR exercise as a “cynical and shameful farce”, the TMC alleged that the process was being carried out at the “behest of the BJP and the Election Commission”. “They will drag our icons through the mud and stoop to any level if it serves their Bangla-Birodhi agenda,” the party said.
