Retired Indian Foreign Service officer Navdeep Suri, who previously served as India’s ambassador to the UAE and Egypt and as High Commissioner to Australia, said he was asked to provide additional documents proving his Indian citizenship during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Punjab.
Suri, an Amritsar resident, said he initially submitted his voter ID and Aadhaar card to his Booth Level Officer and was told that his documents were in order. He later received a message saying that some of his details did not match records from the 2003 electoral roll, prompting officials to seek further documentation.
Suri said the discrepancy appeared to be linked to the fact that he was posted abroad in 2003. He was subsequently asked to submit his passport.
The former diplomat questioned the situation, saying that if someone who had spent years officially representing India overseas faced difficulty establishing his citizenship, it raised questions about the difficulties ordinary citizens might encounter.
PASSPORT AND AADHAAR AS CITIZENSHIP PROOF
The request for Suri's passport has also highlighted the distinction between government-issued identity documents and conclusive proof of citizenship.
The Ministry of External Affairs has previously clarified that while passports are generally issued to Indian citizens after document verification and police checks, a passport does not by itself constitute conclusive proof of citizenship.
Similarly, Aadhaar establishes identity and residence, not citizenship, and can also be issued to eligible non-citizen residents.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has previously argued that passports and Aadhaar should be recognised as citizenship documents and suggested a separate, visually identifiable Aadhaar format for non-citizens.
SIR PROCESS IN PUNJAB
The episode comes as Punjab undergoes the second phase of the electoral-roll revision.
During the initial phase, officials carried out a house-to-house verification drive from June 25 to August 3, collecting and digitising enumeration forms from nearly 1.94 crore of Punjab's 2.14 crore registered voters.
More than 20 lakh electors, or about 9.63% of the electorate, were classified as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate.
Draft electoral rolls for all 117 Assembly constituencies have now been published. Voters can submit claims and objections until September 12, with scrutiny scheduled to continue until October 8. The final electoral rolls are expected to be published on October 12.
A useful next step for affected voters is to check their names and details in the draft electoral roll and submit any required claim or objection before the September 12 deadline.
