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Kolkata: Sheikh Liyaqat Hossein has lived his entire life in a narrow lane of Mollapara in Shibpur, Howrah. He studied up to Class 8 at the local Shibpur Ramkrishna Daridra Bhander School before financial hardship forced him to drop out and led him to a job in the Indian Railways. He worked as a carpenter at the Eastern Railway’s Liluah workshop, eventually retiring last year after 40 years of service to a state-owned enterprise.

On January 27, Hossein, a voter listed on Part 304 of the Howrah Madhya assembly constituency received an official notice in which he was told that a complaint had been received on his presence in the voter list and notwithstanding his record of government service, the reason cited in the complaint was that he was a “suspected non-Indian citizen”. 

The challenge was initiated through a Form 7 complaint filed by a voter from Part No 201, a distant locality in the same constituency. The Wire is withholding the name as the person appears to be a private citizen and could not be contacted yet. The complaint, however, triggered a Form 14 notice from the Election Commission of India, under the Registration of Electors Rules, the formal legal process used in India to challenge an individual’s right to remain on the voter list.

Holding his Indian Railways service records and a provident fund passbook as proof of his lifelong contribution to the state, Hossein expressed his disbelief at the situation. “My father and grandfather lived here all their lives, and I was born and brought up here,” he said. “I have my service records and everything, yet now I am being asked to prove I am an Indian citizen. Is it because I am a Muslim?” he asked.

Similar notices have been received by nearly all adult members of his extended family, all triggered by Form 7 applications filed by three individuals from another community, living at three different addresses. None of the electors who received these notices have any inkling as to who these complainants are. The objections originated from names and addresses entirely foreign to their daily lives.

Farruk Hossein Sardar, a cloth vendor from nearby Ghulam Hussain Sardar Lane in Howrah, is another resident caught in a sudden challenge to his citizenship. Born and raised in the area, a fact........

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