KOLKATA — The Editors Guild of India issued a statement on Sunday condemning the denial of voting and passport rights to former editor R Rajagopal. The organization stated that Rajagopal's case "highlights the misery that millions of Indians are being put through" due to the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision exercise.

Rajagopal's name was removed from the electoral roll in West Bengal during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. He stated that his passport renewal was subsequently held up because his name had been removed from the electoral roll. Rajagopal has appealed the decision to remove his name from the electoral roll in court.

Rajagopal, who served as the editor of the Kolkata-based daily from 2016 to 2023, wrote in an article published by The Wire that his name was removed because neither his nor his father's name could be found in the 2002 electoral rolls. He stated that he has lived in Kolkata's Ballygunge constituency for more than 25 years and has been a voter since 2010. The Special Intensive Revision process verifies current voter records against the 2002 electoral rolls.

Authorities informed Rajagopal that police verification for his passport renewal could not be completed due to his removal from the electoral roll. "No reason was furnished for my exclusion [from the voters' list] 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," Rajagopal alleged. He also wrote, "I was puzzled because I could not find any public document that listed the voter identity card as a mandatory document for passport renewal."

The Special Intensive Revision exercise began on November 4, 2025, across 12 states and federally administered territories. Approximately 60 million names have been removed from electoral rolls since the exercise began, including about nine million names in West Bengal. Another phase of the exercise is under way in 16 states and three federally-administered territories.