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Constitutional Law. Pop. Art. Politics.

[ParanjoyGuhaThakurta @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.

[Abier @abierkhatib]

Whoever did this, thank u 🙏

[Leyla Hamed @leylahamed]

I’m still waiting for journalists to question American players about Trump’s actions and foreign policy. You know, bombing schools and stuff like that.

Seems like political questions are only reserved for Asian, African and Arab players.

[໊ @oboo_emma_]

mexico genuinely has one of the best stadiums at this world cup, but they’re not getting the hype they deserve. that view is absolutely insane man.🇲🇽

[Martín Dandach @MartinDandach]

El capitán de la Selección de Irán, Mehdi Taremi, explotó contra la FIFA y la organización de Estados Unidos.

“Esta es una Copa del Mundo desastrosa. Como jugadores profesionales no podemos jugar una competición en estas condiciones, no está bien ni es justo. Si la FIFA piensa que esto es justo, tema de ellos, pero no lo es. ¿Quién debería solucionar este problema por nosotros? ¿La FIFA? ¿EE.UU.? ¡No sé! Díganme un nombre. El presidente de la FIFA, Gianni Infantino, vino a nuestro vestuario después del primer partido contra Nueva Zelanda y dijo que iba a resolver todos los problemas, pero en realidad, la FIFA no hizo nada. Respondiendo la pregunta de: "¿Sienten que los organizadores de la Copa del Mundo, incluidos la FIFA y los funcionarios estadounidenses, prefieren que Irán sea eliminado de la competencia?", digo: Tenemos que luchar contra absolutamente todo. No podemos quedarnos en el país, viajamos y nos sometemos a controles migratorios cada vez que queremos jugar, ahora no podemos quedarnos en Seattle y tenemos que volver a Tijuana. Han hecho todo lo posible para eliminarnos, entonces desde nuestra perspectiva, sí, creo que lo quieren así, nos quieren afuera”.

[IRAN EMBASSY in KENYA @IRANinKENYA]

This is Tijuana 4:00 am last night. Iran national team arrived.
This is the most unfair and shameful #WarCup in history.
If any of this happened to Team USA in Iran — no recovery after matches, immediate flights to the airport, massive external pressure, or management/logistics staff denied visas — FIFA would suspend Iran instantly, cancel hosting rights, and slap on heavy fines.
But when it’s our Team Melli? Total silence and bias for the wrong side.
Shame on America.
Shame on FIFA.
Team Melli fights with dignity anyway.
#TeamMelli #WorldCup2026

[dr. mohammed hamad - Gaza @Medo198518]

I don't think anyone will survive in the Gaza Strip in the end. Israel continues the massacre. This bombing is 500 meters away from my tent in Deir al-Balah.

[Bharati Chaturvedi @Bharati09]

Delhi’s street vendors are thrown out of most upscale colonies colonies and posh markets. That’s why you seem outside the gates.

Like this fruit vendor, at RKPuram on Saturdays.

7 days a week, he walks from Azadpur or Okhla Mandi to a specific South Delhi colony. Different each day.

These days, while walking, he rests under trees, put a wet cloth on his head and drink water. He parks his push cart under a tree and hopes to make a profit.

And with him, always, is a medicine for breathlessness. He can’t breathe properly in peak heat or in peak winter.

Heat stress is not equal for everyone. At the very least, buy from a street vendor so they can support themselves.

[Erika Guevara Rosas @ErikaGuevaraR]

It took me a couple of days to read the latest @UN Commission of Inquiry's report on how Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children. I had to stop, again and again, just to breathe. The level of devastation, the detail, the evidence, it is overwhelming.

The findings are devastating and unequivocal: Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in #Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

At @Amnesty, we documented the genocide in Gaza in our report published in December 2024, and more recently detailed evidence of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. We know the patterns. We have exposed the atrocities. Yet reading this report still shakes you to the core. It goes deeper into the intent, into the systematic nature of the violence, into the unbearable reality that children themselves are being targeted.

This is not collateral damage. This is not incidental. This is deliberate. Children, killed, maimed, traumatized, deprived not only of safety, but of any possibility of a future. Entire generations being erased in plain sight.

How much more evidence does the world need? How many more reports must confirm what is already undeniable?

Governments cannot continue to look away. Silence and inaction, in this moment, are complicity.

This must end. Israel must be held fully accountable.

🔗https://t.co/n6K8HpK3nh

[sleepy cat || @iamdatemike.bsky.social @iamdatemike]

so evil to say - oh let the kids have eggs at home

In a country where the only way to get children away from bonded child labour and into schools to get educated was to promise one meal and take that off the list of things for impoverished parents to provide for their children

[The Wire @thewire_in]

Modi Has Been Dismantling Democracy But India's Liberals are Going After Rahul Gandhi

While others search for tactical compromises with majoritarianism, Rahul Gandhi consistently challenges it and stays committed to constitutional values.

Ashok Swain✍️
https://t.co/W1SuJQb4RH

[Joyce Carol Oates @JoyceCarolOates]

imagine: a single individual, never elected to any office, deciding that "America's doors are fully closed to asylum seekers...."

so as Hitler ramped up his campaign of genocide against utterly innocent, non-political Jews in Europe, this person, a descendent of European Jews, would have forbidden them / his own ancestors entry?

[John Fugelsang @JohnFugelsang]

Thank you, Justice Elena Kagan,
for responding to the SCOTUS decision to deport Haitian refugee families back to a place America knows is unsafe,
by adding Trump’s vile, racist, Christ-hating, exact words into the official case record.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

In the future people won't believe it ever got this bad. But it did.

[Cuckturd @CattardSlim]

America 250 was going to be like a World Fair that would have attracted millions of people.

But Trump stole the money, denied permits, & renamed it Freedom 250 so he could make it all about himself & Republicans.

Trump stole America's Birthday from you! 🤬

[David J. Bier @David_J_Bier]

They are so mad at people who have never done anything to them, who they have never met, who they know virtually nothing about other than their place of birth. It’s bizarre and evil to decide who is valuable and worthy of respect on this basis

[Omar El-Ayat @oelayat]

Weeks after trying to get Trita Parsi deported for opposing war with Iran, Bari thinks it’s time for a national conversation about censorship.

[Prashant Pundir @kafkasbluebug]

when the tides turn, and they always do, we should not forget bollywood's role in legitimising the hindutva regime.

from akshay kumar, suniel shetty, ranveer singh, arjun rampal, vicky kaushal, karan johar, ajay devgn, amitabh bachchan, and every other celebrity who chose to publicly align themselves with a platform, or normalise hindutva politics.

through RSS visits. through photo-ops. through propaganda films that turned muslims and minorities into permanent enemies. through the normalisation of authoritarianism as entertainment. through wrapping state violence in the language of patriotism.

hindutva doesn't survive through elections alone. it survives through culture. through celebrities, films, influencers, and spectacle that manufacture consent.

history should remember them as the great oppressors that they have been, and not helpless actors who did not have any other choice to make.

[Austin Kocher, PhD @ackocher]

Somehow it still surprises me, although it shouldn’t, how many people on this website just really do not understand, and do not want to understand, the Supreme Court ruling on TPS. It’s like talking to flat earthers.

[Nick Mark MD @nickmmark]

Musk will never put a million people on Mars or build a Dyson swarm to power AGI.

Gleefully causing millions of preventable deaths *IS* going to be his legacy. And he knows it.

He could choose to be like Alfred Nobel & use his fortune to define a different legacy. But he won’t.