ECI cites age gap discrepancy for serving SIR notice to Amartya Sen

The issue of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen being called for a hearing by the Election Commission of India (ECI) came to light on Tuesday after Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee raised the matter publicly.

The Chief Electoral Officer later clarified that Professor Sen has not been summoned for any hearing and that a Booth Level Officer (BLO) will instead visit his Santiniketan residence, Pratichi, to make certain corrections.

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It has now emerged that the ECI has sought clarification because the age difference between Professor Sen and his parents ~ his father, Asutosh Sen, and his mother, Amita Sen ~ is shown as less than 15 years in the records, which the Commission described as “not generally expected”. The issue has been categorised as a document mismatch.

Amita Sen was closely associated with Rabindranath Tagore, the founder of Visva-Bharati University (VBU) and Asia’s first Nobel laureate, while Professor Sen’s grandfather, Professor Kshitimohan Sen, served as Vice-Chancellor of VBU.

On Tuesday, while addressing a public gathering in Birbhum, Abhishek strongly criticised the move. Shortly afterwards, a three-member team from the commission visited Pratichi House in Santiniketan and served a notice.

According to the notice, the age gap between Professor Sen and his parents appeared unusually low. However, commission officials have clarified that Professor Sen is not required to appear for any hearing and that the issue will be resolved once the relevant documents are submitted.

Despite this clarification, the matter has sparked controversy. Professor Sen’s brother, Shantabhanu Sen, described the action as “harassment”.

Professor Sen is currently in Boston, USA.

Gitikanta Majumdar, who is in-charge of Pratichi House, said all of Professor Sen’s documents were available and would be provided.