Left-leaning rights groups rally in Kolkata against alleged bid to introduce NRC through SIR

Hundreds of people from rights and civil society groups protested on Saturday against what they alleged is a plan to introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC) through Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly election.

The rally from College Square to Esplanade was called by left-leaning civil society groups, including APDR, No NRC Movement, Sangrami Shramik Manch, among others.

Speaking on behalf of the organisers, Ranjit Sur said, “While we support an error-free voter list, we have a hunch that despite updating the rolls multiple times, the current move to undertake SIR is aimed at collecting data that could be used to roll out NRC. This goes against the spirit of the Indian justice system, and the Election Commission has no right to undertake such an exercise.”

“We can’t comprehend why a citizen has to mandatorily refer to his parents’ birth date and place of birth details with documentary evidence if that is not included in the voter ID,” he said.

“In a country of poor and semi-literate people, this is impractical and could effectively deny citizenship rights to genuine citizens who cannot produce the required documents or alternatives like passports,” he added.

Sur claimed that there are reports of setting up detention camps in different states. “The poor, Dalit, migrant, minorities will become second-class citizens in a Hindu rashtra. We will protest this,” he said.