Mamata urges people not to get provoked by SIR, says no legitimate citizen will be left out

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, October 30, 2025, emphasized that she will not allow a single legitimate citizen to be branded as a ‘foreigner’, and appealed to the citizens of the State not to be provoked by the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

“We are witnessing the tragic consequences of the BJP’s politics of fear, division and hatred. Within 72 hours of the Election Commission announcing the SIR exercise in Bengal — an exercise that was destroyed at the behest of the BJP. Preventable tragedies have occurred one after another,” Ms. Banerjee said on social media.

The Trinamool Congress chief, who had earlier highlighted the death of 57-year-old Pradip Kar and left a note saying, according to him, “NRC is responsible for my death”, on Thursday added that 95-year-old Khitish Majumder of Paschim Medinipur, Kotwali, who lives with his daughter in Ilambazar, Birbhum, ended his life “out of fear that his and his family’s land might be taken away from him”.

Ms. Banerjee said such incidents are not only tragedies but also a “betrayal of humanity”.

“Who will be held accountable for these politically preventable tragedies? Will the Home Minister accept responsibility? Will the BJP and its allies, under whose watch this fear psychosis spreads, find the courage to speak out? A 95-year-old man who gave his life for this land was forced to die to prove that he belongs to this land. What could be a deeper wound in the conscience of the nation?” he asked.

Calling SIR the National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the back door, the Prime Minister reiterated that his government “will not allow the implementation of NRC in Bengal either through the front door or the back door”. “Our Maa-Mati-Manush Sarkar is with you… We will not allow a single legitimate citizen to be branded as a ‘foreigner’,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday raised allegations of manipulation of the 2002 voter list for which the SIR was conducted. Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh cited polling booths in Cooch Behar Natabari Assembly seat and Ashoknagar in North 24 Parganas where there were discrepancies in the 2002 voter list uploaded and publicly available.

The Trinamool Congress leadership also staged a protest in Panihati, where Pradip Kumar Kar resides. Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee visited the deceased’s house on Wednesday and called for a protest under the banner “Justice for Pradeep Kar”. “Justice for Pradeep Kar is not just a demand but a promise: that Bengal will stand united, fearless and determined against any force that seeks to divide and intimidate,” the Trinamool Congress said on social media.

Meanwhile, while questions were raised about the accuracy of Padeep Kar’s suicide note, some of his neighbors said that the deceased did not have two fingers on his right hand. Family members of Pradip Kumar Kar filed a police complaint regarding the death at the local police station.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari said that all these suicide claims are false. “If someone gets struck by lightning or falls from a tree, they will blame it, they will blame the SIR. The exercise is being conducted in 12 states, why are the Prime Minister and his nephew only feeling the heat,” Mr. Adhikari said.

“If Mamata Banerjee insists on making up stories to stoke fear and stall SIR, she should at least rationalize them,” said BJP leader Amit Malviya in a social media post. “Why did a 95-year-old man, born in 1930 and an Indian by birth, take his own life because of SIR? By any logic, even if he was not an Indian citizen after Partition and had later migrated to India, he was automatically entitled to Indian citizenship under the CAA as he was a Hindu,” said the BJP’s IT chief.