RR Rajagopal: Editors Guild of India condemns ‘denial’ of voting rights and passports to ex-Telegraph editor

India’s leading journalists’ association has condemned what it says is the denial of voting rights and passports to the former editor.

RR Rajagopal, who used to work for The Telegraph newspaper, says, outside his passport renewal was put on hold after his name was removed from the electoral roll in West Bengal during the controversial electoral roll revision.

Known as Special Intensive Revision (SIR), this exercise is carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to identify ineligible voters. Critics say it wrongfully removed millions of eligible voters, a charge the ECI rejects.

In a statement on Sunday, the Editors Guild of India said Rajagopal’s case “highlights the plight of millions of Indians” due to the SIR exercise.

It added that if a powerful person like Rajagopal were to be deprived of his voting rights, the plight of common Indians would be dire.

The ECI has not publicly responded to the specific allegations against Rajagopal. The BBC has contacted officials for comment.

Since the start of the SIR operation on 4 November 2025 in 12 states and government-administered territories, approximately 60 million names have been removed from the electoral roll.

About nine million of those were in West Bengal. Rajagopal is among the thousands who have appealed the decision in court.

Another phase of the project is underway in 16 states and three government-administered areas.

In an article published by news website The Wire, Rajagopal wrote that despite living in Ballygunge district of Kolkata for more than 25 years, his name was removed because his and his father’s names were not found in the 2002 election list.

The SIR process verifies current voter records against the 2002 electoral rolls, the last time such a review was conducted nationwide.

Rajagopal has written that his name has been removed even though he has been a voter since 2010 and worked as an editor for the Kolkata-based newspaper The Telegraph for seven years.

“There was no reason given for not being released [from the voters’ list] even after I submitted my matriculation certificate, and my appeal is still pending before one of the hearings set up according to the instructions of the Supreme Court,” he said in the article.

He said later the authorities told him that the police verification of his passport renewal could not be completed because his name had been removed from the electoral roll.

“I was confused because I did not find a public document with a voter ID as a mandatory document for renewing passports,” he wrote.

The BBC has contacted the Election Commission for a response to the allegations.

“If a person who has spent his life as a journalist and editor of a well-known newspaper can face such hardships, one can only imagine what the downtrodden must endure,” added Rajagopal.

Rajagopal’s case has caught the attention of many people on social media, with journalists and opposition leaders expressing their support and urging the ECI to restore his voting rights.

In a post on X, veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai said he had a fight with Rajagopal.

“What’s scary is that this can happen to anyone!” he wrote.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that Rajagopal was paying a price for his journalism and accountability.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary MA Baby said his party “warned that the SIR exercise will rob the poor and vulnerable of our country”.

“But now, even a famous editor and respected journalist like R Rajagopal has been denied his right to vote,” he wrote in X.