Shashi Panja appears for SIR hearing, says "won't show passport"

Bengal’s Women and Child Welfare Minister, Shashi Panja, has launched a fierce protest against the Election Commission (EC) after being summoned for a Special Interim Revision (SIR) hearing. On Sunday afternoon, the veteran Trinamool Congress leader appeared at a hearing center in Girish Park with her documents but left the venue, expressing deep resentment. Panja, a three-time minister and long-standing MLA, questioned the logic behind questioning her citizenship and voter status, calling the entire process an attempt to harass public representatives and ordinary citizens alike.

The controversy erupted when EC officials reportedly demanded Panja’s passport as additional proof, despite her providing records of being a voter since 2002. "I am being unnecessarily harassed. My name has been in the voter list for decades, yet they claim it’s missing and now demand my passport," Panja told reporters. In a defiant tone, she declared that she would refuse to show her passport as a mark of protest, highlighting that many common people might not even possess such documents and would be unfairly targeted by these demands.

According to sources, the discrepancy arose due to a technical glitch in the Commission's online application, where Panja's 2002 records were not reflecting correctly. Despite her having filled out all the enumeration forms accurately, she was given very short notice to appear for the 2:00 PM Sunday hearing. The Minister alleged that if a high-ranking official and public figure like her faces such scrutiny, the plight of the general public standing in long queues must be far worse. She accused the Commission of acting with bias and failing to address the "logical glitches" in their own system.