Ayaon Ghosh

খাঁটি বাঙালি

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@swatiatrest এ এমন ইয়ং কীভাবে হয়ে গেল?

[Paranjoy Guha Thakurta @paranjoygt]

The Telegraph editor’s passport not being renewed in Kolkata

Note from R. Rajagopal
Former Editor, The Telegraph
——-
In March this year, my name was deleted from the Ballygunge constituency electoral roll in Kolkata, apparently because the Special Intensive Revision process could not trace either my name or that of my late father in the 2002 voters' list. My father, a Gandhian, retired professor and former State Secretary of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in Kerala, passed away in 2016. I remain unable to understand how a conscientious voter like him could have been absent from the rolls.

Like nearly 27 lakh other residents of West Bengal, I was excluded on account of what were described as “logical discrepancies”. No reason was furnished even after I submitted my matriculation certificate, and my appeal is now pending before one of the tribunals constituted pursuant to the Supreme Court's directions. As a consequence, I was unable to vote in the recent election.

More distressing has been the fate of my passport renewal application. Although I completed the biometric formalities on March 19, 2026, police verification has not been cleared because my name no longer appears on the electoral roll. Despite submitting several alternative documents, I have been informed that they are insufficient. In fact, today (June 27, 2026) is the 100th day since my biometrics for passport renewal were taken. I was formally informed last week by the passport-issuing authority that Kolkata Police sent an adverse report, citing the deletion of my name from the voters' list. I have been asked to appear before the Regional Passport Office in Calcutta "immediately" but when I sought an appointment, without which it is difficult to gain entry, the date granted is July 17, 2026.

In between, our daughter, a journalist in California, got married in San Francisco on April 17. Needless to say, it would have been impossible for me to attend the wedding in the absence of an active passport, notwithstanding my possession of a valid ten-year US visa.

For all practical purposes, I find myself in a state of civic uncertainty although recently the government iterated that a passport is no proof of citizenship. Much of my time is now consumed by efforts to reconstruct family records and secure documents dating back several decades….

My days begin with checking my voting right appeal status and then the passport tracker. Then I write to the college where my mother taught in 1965 and to her school from where she passed out in 1959, asking for any document that proves she existed. The school has been very helpful but not the college. Similarly, I speak to prohibition campaign activists in Kerala, running down a list I collected after coming across an activist's name in a group by chance, asking for any news clipping or photographs that show my father campaigning against illegal liquor vends and communalism.

Some close friends and public figures have helped me in all these efforts. However, I am unaware if any media outlet or journalists' association or guild (of which I am not a member) has shown any interest in my situation. A senior journalist reminded me that this situation is by no means unique as "rejection" has been the daily certainty confronting millions of Indians for centuries. I accept that point.

My intention has never been to project myself as a victim. Rather, I have wanted to underline a larger point: if someone who spent his professional life in journalism and edited a relatively known newspaper can encounter such difficulties, one can only imagine what the truly marginalised must endure. Did I approach any newspaper? No, because I do not want it to become an issue concerning me. Do editors and journalists know about my issue? Of course, several do. If they don't, they should not be in the profession, don't you think?

Yet, the complete silence of newspapers on this issue has confirmed my suspicion, now reinforced with personal experience, that so-called mainstream journalism has little to do with my life. I do not "read" any newspaper now. I glance at some but hardly find anything that piques my interest.

[David Oks @davideoks]

I wrote an article on why China got rich and India didn't, and why investing in human capital is so important for poor countries to succeed

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@KanjilalSupti10 কান ধরে ওঠবোস করানো উচিত ছিল

[PunsterX @PunsterX]

Shocking!

Hardeep Puri rises to speak in the Parliament.

Opposition chants- "Dekho-dekho kaun aaya, Epstein ka dost aaya."

I condemn this act of the opposition. If they do it again, I will share the video and condemn it again.

RT if you condemn it too.

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@beastoftraal Pity this Partho got a doctorate also !!

[Aparna @chhuti_is]

Sheikh Riyazul sells chicken patties. He was humiliated and beaten at Gita Path programme at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata. Question to ⁦@CPKolkata⁩. When would you arrest these thugs and how would you ensure justice? Parijat, the Durgapur accused is out on bail.

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@GargaC This is worth reading

https://t.co/5HIjiB15bm

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@DealsDhamaka This is more of a design issue and glad that someone pointed this out. I had Indica Vista way back in 2017 and it was a major issue then as well.

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@swatiatrest @CommenterSerial I guess it’s less than 5% . Most stick to signal rules

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@iindrojit Then someone please ask him if there would be united Bengal as promised by him, what’s the point of doing NRC at all?

[Ashish Bagchi @BagchiAsh]

What #Arattai should have to replace double blue ticks.

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@Ravisutanjani Why not Honda Elevate?

[Shamin Barbhuiya @stfushamin]

Today, an HR on Indeed asked me: “Are you Hindu or Muslim?”
The moment I replied, they said: “No vacancy.”
Hiring should be about skills & merit, not religion.
Discrimination like this is unacceptable in 2025.
@strescongroup this the company
#EqualOpportunity #Hiring

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@LoveFromManali Those wondering, what ideology has to do in a relationship, are closeted bhakts themselves

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@LinkedInLunat1c This can’t be real, it must be a spoof

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@ranjona They lost their brains and that’s why they resorted to BJP

[Cyrus Janssen @thecyrusjanssen]

An Iranian man left this comment on my YouTube channel. It's the single best explanation I've ever heard on the future of #Iran 👇

As an Iranian, I can tell you the situation is no longer just political—it's existential. We are trapped between two collapsing structures: one internal, one external. On one hand, we face a deeply dysfunctional government, led by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic’s unelected institutions.

Decades of economic mismanagement, suppression of dissent, and brutal ideological control have alienated multiple generations. No one believes in reform anymore—because every attempt has either been co-opted or crushed.

But here's the paradox: We are also terrified of regime collapse—because we've watched the aftermath of Western intervention in countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Each was promised freedom; each descended into chaos, civil war, or foreign occupation. So no, we don't trust the U.S. or Israel. Not because we support our regime—but because we know how imperial powers treat ‘liberated’ nations in the Middle East.

Freedom, in their language, often means vacuum, fire, and permanent instability. Right now, many Iranians live with three truths at once: The Islamic Republic is morally and politically bankrupt. The alternatives offered by foreign actors are not liberation—they’re collapse. A bad government is survivable. No government is not. We are not silent because we agree.

We are cautious because we’ve learned—too well—what happens when superpowers decide to "help." In a sentence: Iran is a nation held hostage by its own regime, but haunted by the fate of its neighbors. We are stuck in a house we hate, surrounded by fires we fear more.

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

@nainaverse To all the NCR buddies, Sikkim is not worth visiting. Pls don’t go there . Please go to Uttarakhand and Himachal . Pls spare eastern Himalaya

[Ayaon Ghosh @ayaonghosh]

This clown is the civil aviation minister of our country and adds music to his disaster reel .