In a scathing rebuke of the Central Government’s administrative policies, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that a wave of “citizenship anxiety” is sweeping the state, resulting in three to four suicides every single day. Speaking at a commemorative event for the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Friday, 23 January 2026, the Chief Minister alleged that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls has become a tool of harassment that is claiming lives.
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A Rising Death Toll and Administrative Pressure
Banerjee asserted that more than 110 people have already perished due to the stress and panic caused by the revision process. She further highlighted that an additional 40 to 45 individuals are currently hospitalised in critical condition following self-harm attempts or severe stress-related collapses.
The Chief Minister demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the BJP-led Union Government accept full responsibility for these fatalities. “Is it not a shame that after living here for generations, our people are still forced to prove they are citizens of this land?” she remarked, framing the exercise as a deliberate attempt to “crush democracy.”
Statistical Overview: The SIR Crisis in West Bengal
| Subject of Concern | Reported Figure / Impact |
| Total Deaths Linked to SIR | 110+ Individuals |
| Daily Estimated Suicides | 3 to 4 Persons |
| Notices Issued for Discrepancies | 13.8 Million (1.38 Crore) |
| Voters Summonsed for Hearings | 16.6 Million (1.66 Crore) |
| Names Excluded from Draft List | 5.8 Million (58 Lakh) |
| Total State Electorate | 76 Million (7.6 Crore) |
The “Surname Sabotage” and Elite Targeting
The Chief Minister heavily criticised the technical grounds on which voters are being summoned. She noted that many notices are based on “logical inconsistencies” regarding the spelling of Bengali surnames. Using her own name as a primary example, she explained that “Banerjee” and “Bandyopadhyay” are linguistic variants of the same name—a fact she claimed the SIR officials were either ignorant of or deliberately ignoring.
Banerjee questioned the targeting of respected figures, specifically mentioning that world-renowned economist Amartya Sen had been served a notice. She posed a provocative rhetorical question: “If Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were alive today, would he also be summoned to an SIR hearing to prove his Indian identity?”
A Battle of National Icons
Accusing the “Saffron Brigade” of a conspiracy against Bengal, Banerjee claimed that the BJP is attempting to distort the nation’s history and insult icons like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and B.R. Ambedkar. She described the current political struggle as a “conflict between good and evil,” explicitly comparing her opposition to the BJP to the battle against the Kauravas in the Mahabharata.
Banerjee concluded by mocking the use of teleprompters by central leaders when attempting to speak Bengali during rallies, calling it a superficial gesture that masks a deep-seated “intolerance and ungratefulness” toward the state’s intellectual and linguistic heritage.