Hello,
West Bengal has a new government, a chief minister. Top BJP leadership, including Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, ran with a campaign promise: to purge “illegal infiltrators” feeding off state welfare.
The vehicle for that promise was the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which deleted over 91 lakh voters from the state electoral rolls.
This week, our reporter Ayushi Kar tracked what happens to these deleted voters next, especially to those who rely on state welfare.
We reviewed a government order meant to deliver on Adhikari's promise. It does not ask officials to identify a single infiltrator in the voter rolls. Instead, it simply strips voters deleted during SIR of subsidised food.
Read the story to see what the new government is up to: WB Chief Minister Lied. His Gov’t Order Doesn’t Check for ‘Illegal Migrants’ Before Stripping Subsidised Food
This is part of our continuing effort to track SIR’s fallout beyond the voter list — into ration cards, welfare schemes, and citizenship rhetoric. Each state appears to be weaponising SIR deletions differently and arbitrarily, punishing citizens without ever determining who, if anyone, isn’t Indian.
We will keep following this trail, state by state, bringing stories to your screens.
If you have documents, data, or tips on how SIR deletions are playing out where you live, write to us.
And, do support us with donations to help us take up longer projects, that are time and resource intensive, but are important too. Click the link below to contribute.
Warm regards,
Furquan Ameen
Managing Editor
The Reporters' Collective