Mamata Blames Citizenship Anxiety for Rising Suicide Rates

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has issued a harrowing indictment of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, claiming that the exercise is driving citizens to despair. On Friday, 23 January 2026, during an event at Kolkata’s Red Road marking the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the Chief Minister alleged that between three and four people are taking their own lives every day across the state due to acute anxiety regarding their citizenship status.

A Growing Humanitarian Crisis

The Chief Minister revealed that the death toll linked to SIR-related distress has already exceeded 110 individuals. She further noted that approximately 40 to 45 people are currently hospitalised and "fighting for their lives" following suicide attempts or stress-induced medical emergencies. Banerjee laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central Government, demanding they take accountability for these tragedies.

"After all these years, must we still prove that we are citizens of this country?" she asked the gathered crowd. She argued that the fundamental rights of the people are being eroded and democracy "crushed" under the guise of administrative verification.

Impact of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal

The "Identity Crisis" and Bengali Surnames

A central point of Banerjee's criticism involved the perceived cultural ignorance of the officials conducting the SIR. She pointed out that Bengali surnames often have multiple spellings in English despite being identical in the vernacular. Using herself as an example, she noted that "Banerjee" and "Bandyopadhyay" are used interchangeably.

She expressed disbelief that 13.8 million people were issued notices for such "logical inconsistencies." Banerjee questioned why figures as prominent as the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen were being served notices, and sarcastically pondered whether Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose himself would have been summoned to prove his Indian identity were he alive today.

A War of Narratives: History and Identity

Targeting the "Saffron Brigade," the Chief Minister accused the BJP of distorting Indian history and insulting national icons such as Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and B.R. Ambedkar. She claimed the BJP’s version of history has no root in reality and serves only to alienate the intellectuals of Bengal.

In a final, sharp rhetorical flourish, she compared the current political climate to the epic Mahabharata. "We are fighting against the Kauravas," she declared, framing her resistance as a battle of good against evil. She mocked the BJP leadership for using teleprompters to speak a few words of Bengali during election cycles, calling it an insult to the linguistic heritage of the state.