Citizenship row in Kolkata: Sports greats who donned India jersey protest SIR hearings ‘harassment’

KOLKATA: Around 150 current and former sportspersons, including many prominent faces who have donned the nat-ional colours and won fame for the country, joined a protest on Monday against the “harassment” caused by SIR notices asking them and their family members to appear for hearings to prove their Indian citizenship.


Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, who played in the Indian cricket team, and former football stars Compton Dutta, Aloke Mukherjee, Aloke Das and Mehtab Hossain were among those who gathered outside Bhowanipore Club to protest the way Election Commission is conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.



They demanded they be exempted from appearing for hearings as their identities are well known to the nation.


“We have worn the India jersey. Why should we be served hearing notices to prove that we belong to India? I have come here to denounce this insult,” said Manas Bhattacharya, who won laurels while playing for Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting in the 1970s and 1980s.


Shukla — former Indian cricketer and current Bengal team coach, and a former junior sports minister of the state — got a notice on Jan 7 asking him to appear for a hearing. Shukla had to skip the hearing because of his coaching engagement for Vijay Hazare Trophy. EC later said Shukla had submitted an incomplete SIR form.


Sixty-nine-year-old Compton Dutta, who played for Mohun Bagan for a decade from 1975 and also represented the country in 1982 Asian Games, attended a hearing in Salt Lake’s FE block. Awestruck at his presence, poll panel officials scurried for a selfie with him at the hearing venue. “I was called to the hearing as my name was not in the 2002 electoral roll. I carried all my passports issued since 1975, when I started representing the country, and other documents, which seemed to have put the officials to shame,” Compton Dutta said.


He will have to attend another hearing, on behalf of his son who is now in Oman.


Aloke Mukherjee, who captained the Indian football team in the 1980s, described the SIR hearing as “harassment”.


“The EC sent a hearing notice to my younger son, who is a scientist and lives in Tamil Nadu. The hearing was scheduled for Sunday. I could not attend it (on behalf of my son) as I was busy with the launch of my book. I have played for India. I take it as an insult that my son is being asked to prove that he is an Indian,” said the 66-year-old.


Aloke Das, who was a member of the Indian football squad in the 1990s, and his son have got hearing notices. “We are to appear before EC officials on Jan 17. It’s an ordeal for players like us to stand in a queue as fans surround us for an autograph or a selfie. Even the BLO who visited my home took a selfie with me,” said Das, who cast his vote in 2002 at his home town Basirhat and shifted to Taltala, in Kolkata, three years ago.


Mehtab Hossain, one of the few Maidan greats who captained both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal and also represented the country, rued that his mother and elder sister have to attend hearings. “Is this a joke! My mother, now 65, has been voting since she was 18. EC asked her to prove her citizenship on the grounds that her name was not on the 2002 voters’ list. But she had voted in 2002. This hearing is only causing harassment,” Hossain said.


Earlier, Mohammed Shami, a pacer in the Indian team, had received a hearing notice. He was not present in Monday’s protest.