A tragic suicide in Kolkata’s Regent Park area has reignited debates over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and its potential impact on Bengal’s residents. A man in his early 70s, identified as Dilip Kumar Saha, who migrated from Bangladesh in 1972, was found dead in his home, with a suicide note stating that no one was responsible for his death. However, his family alleges that he was under severe stress due to fears of losing citizenship under a possible NRC exercise in West Bengal. The Kolkata Police have launched an investigation to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The man’s family claims he had been anxious since the 2019 NRC exercise in Assam, which excluded over 19 lakh people, including many Bengali Hindus. “He kept worrying about not having enough documents to prove his citizenship, even though he had lived here for over 50 years,” a relative said. The deceased possessed an Aadhaar card, voter ID, and ration card, but lacked specific pre-1971 documentation, a concern echoed by many in Bengal who fear similar scrutiny.
The incident comes amid heightened political tensions over the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, recently initiated in Bihar and now planned for West Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders have criticised the SIR, labelling it a “backdoor NRC.” Banerjee, in a recent statement, warned that the SIR could be used to target Bengali-speaking communities and strip them of voting rights, citing the Assam NRC’s exclusion of 12 lakh Hindus as evidence of its “anti-Bengali” bias.
The ECI, however, has clarified that the SIR is a routine electoral roll update, not an NRC exercise. A training program for electoral officers in Kolkata on July 26, 2025, included references to SIR procedures, fuelling speculation. The ECI’s Chief Electoral Officer in Bengal emphasised that no SIR has been officially notified, urging calm.
The suicide has also revived memories of the 2019 anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, which saw widespread unrest in Bengal over fears that the CAA, combined with a potential NRC, could marginalise Muslims and undocumented migrants. The CAA, enacted in 2019, grants citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before 2015, but critics argue it discriminates against Muslims and undermines India’s secular ethos.
In 2019, similar fears led to a spate of suicides in Bengal, with at least 11 deaths linked to NRC-related panic, as people struggled to procure pre-1971 documents.
The current case has prompted the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to accuse the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of stoking fear for political gain. TMC leader Arup Biswas stated, “This tragedy shows the human cost of divisive policies.” Trinamool Congress has lashed out at BJP, calling orchestrated campaign of fear.
In a post on ‘X’, TMC stated: "Despite possessing valid documentation, Bengali-speaking citizens are being served NRC notices. Migrant workers are being arbitrarily labelled as foreigners. Citizens are being marked “doubtful” solely for speaking in Bengali. It is a deliberate, systematic attack on Bengali identity. An inhuman, exclusionary campaign that seeks to erase and vilify an entire community. We unequivocally condemn this dangerous, anti-people, Bangla Birodhi agenda”
