00:00to an issue which again concerns each and every one of us this time think about this one missing
00:06name your name is not in the electoral rolls under the sr exercise guess what next thing your passport
00:14is stalled and then there is a bureaucratic maze under which your passport doesn't get renewed
00:19because we don't know in this country anymore what it really takes to be a citizen in india
00:25only in this case the citizen was a former editor of the kolkata-based newspaper r raj gopal who
00:31claimed that his passport renewal has been stuck for over 100 days not because of incomplete paperwork
00:37but because his name was deleted from west bengal's electoral rolls during the special intensive
00:43revision the timeline is telling raj gopal applied to renew his passport on february 27th completed
00:49biometrics by march 19th the police verification began the very next day but on 27th march his
00:56name disappeared from the electoral rolls during the sr exercise fresh documents were sought and then by
01:02june 17th the passport office said there is an adverse police report linked to his voter status now after
01:09nearly four months his next stop isn't a new passport but another hearing at the regional passport office
01:16on july 17th he says he submitted every document sought lived at the same address for decades even
01:22received his original passport from that very address raj gopal is asking questions many citizen
01:28would ask why should a passport renewal hinge on a voter id which law mandates this linkage and why is
01:35one government agency unable to move until another clears its file as raj gopal's claims have triggered a
01:42political outrage kerala chief minister vd satishan has written to his bengal counterpart suvendu adhikari
01:48seeking intervention and kolkata police has now responded claiming that while the absence of a
01:54voter id card may raise a question it is not the definitive document needed for a passport renewal
02:00the police now claim they will resolve the issue shortly but in the meantime i want to go to mr
02:06raj gopal to present his side of the story listening joining me now is the man who finds himself at
02:14the center of that unwanted controversy the former editor of the kolkata-based telegraph our raj gopal
02:19joins us appreciate you joining us uh mr raj gopal your case has captured the national headlines because
02:25it's become illustrative of what can go wrong for millions of citizens because of bureaucracy
02:31because of documentation required your name was not on the sir list which was made for west bengal
02:38uh and then you found yourself next your passport not being renewed for more than 100 days
02:44because the police reportedly gave an adverse report i mean make sense of what happened to you
02:52yeah yeah it's as you said it's a larger picture because what it shows is how one policy
02:58which the election commissioner of india told the supreme court that it is being implemented solely
03:04for the purpose of inclusion or deletion from the water list and it will not be used for any other
03:09purpose and the supreme court also uphold the policy on that assurance immediately after that outside
03:15the court this is what happened they are using it for purposes that was not entered at all in my
03:19case it's a passport and i've heard of other cases where welfare measures are threatened to be
03:24stopped because your name is removed from the sr but those who haven't appealed in my case the
03:30appeal is pending so what it shows is a policy that is so nebulous that is so uncertain it can
03:37be twisted
03:37anyway by by anyone who's implementing it and the citizen is at the complete mercy of it and there's no
03:44policy clarity if you can't have a policy clarity on such a very basic matter how do you live here
03:49so basically what happened was that your name was not on the special intensive revision list that
03:55was prepared for the electoral rolls for bengal because you could not prove that your name and your
04:02late father's name could not could not be traced to the 2002 electoral rolls next thing you find is you
04:07want to renew your passport to attend your daughter's wedding and the police gives an adverse verification
04:13report did they give any reasons the kolkata police why they were not allowing your passport to be
04:19renewed yeah i'll come to in between there is there was actually one more stage after my i could not
04:25i
04:25could not it's called mapping i could not find my name and my father's name there was another stage
04:29which is called under adjudication where the ec has the election commission said that you can submit
04:35any of 11 documents they prescribe one of them was the matriculation certificate which i gave and i
04:40think that it was not accepted because the reason has not been given to me but based on news reports
04:46i presume uh something called uh logical discrepancies were applied probably spelling
04:51mistake or some date discrepancies i don't know yet some problem some mistake or mismatch between my
04:56matriculation certificate which was made way back in 1983 and the current documents they must have
05:01been a mismatch they have been told that is why i've been kept out of it and on the police
05:05side yeah
05:05this is precisely a problem when they when the officer told me that we we cannot we will not uh
05:11give uh police verification until your name is restored in the waters list i told him because my
05:17appeal is pending but so are 77 27 lakh now i say it's 34 lakh appeals and nobody there are
05:23only 19
05:24tribunals nobody knows when this appeal my appeal it's like a lottery like a shot in the dark it can
05:29happen tomorrow it can happen two years down late then the police that is most crucial i asked the police
05:34can you show me a government order or a memo that says that on the basis of which you are
05:38saying that
05:38sir needs to be there for police verification clear this is where the stonewalling began the police
05:43simply refused to answer they will not answer this they just say this it's a very gigantic stonewall
05:49they say we cannot tell you and this is our rule so it's like a kind of take it or
05:54leave it kind of
05:54ultimately you know so you were under logical discrepancies along with 27 lakh other people in
06:00west bengal who could not vote the police uh in march april when you apply for a passport renewal
06:06because your daughter's wedding is on april 17 uh does not give you your renewal of passport could you
06:12have done the tatkal route why didn't you do the tatkal route and fast track your passport yeah see this
06:18here there is a fundamental problem there are some personal issues involved also see
06:22you know that for tatkal you have to pay more money no and and here i have to bring an
06:28unfortunate
06:29side of journalism in india i was i lost my job when i was i was 54 56 years old
06:34and i'm since then
06:35i haven't earned a single penny of course i have seen it but why should i blow my savings on
06:40something like a passport or which which cost double the money why should i do that i i don't understand
06:46that i i didn't i mean and also this wedding thing i just passed it mentioning it is not because
06:51of
06:51i don't think there was any deliberate attempt to block me from going to my daughter's wedding that
06:55is just a coincidence that happened and i even if the passport had been there i may not have gone
07:00that is my decision uh so the wedding was not and i think it i just mentioned wondering passing it
07:05was
07:05an important milestone in during this process that coincided so what you're basically saying
07:10is that the the election commission goes to the supreme court and says whether your name is on the
07:17is not on the sr will not determine your citizenship that the sr exercise is not one of citizenship it's
07:23on
07:23voting but when it comes to passport and passport renewal that is being linked in a way to your
07:29being excluded from sr and the fact also is the government now says passport is not a badge of
07:35citizenship also so it is almost as if we don't even know what documentation will be required tomorrow
07:41for someone to renew his passport what i can tell you the good news is after we've uh highlighted your
07:48story uh the kolkata police has said they will act immediately this follows the kerala chief minister
07:54writing to the west bengal chief minister but you are obviously privileged at least your case has been
07:59highlighted think of all the other anonymous indians whose case doesn't get highlighted because they're
08:04not in the public eye yeah so exactly so this is the solution is not to give me a passport
08:08or reject
08:09it because i'm not in a hurry to go anywhere now so the point is there should be policy clarity
08:14the
08:14the government or either the judiciary or the executive or the legislator there should be clarity
08:19whether sir data can be used for the state of purpose or it can be expanded that is that is
08:24the crux of the matter unless there is policy clarity whether i get a passport or x get a passport
08:31or y get a passport that is just immediately just it is just an immediately individual issue which is
08:35of the important thing is we need policy clarity and if a government and you you may remember
08:41the in the pre-2014 days when there was there was a phrase invented by journalists only called
08:46policy paralysis because just because some interest industries were having problems so much of
08:52heat was kicked up over that but here now because of a policy cloud or policy haze
08:57so many citizens are being affected and nobody is writing anything about it that is that is also my problem
09:02i i want a quick answer
09:03you
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