CHANDIGARH: After former diplomat Navdeep Suri, another former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, 75-year-old Ramesh Chander, has been asked to furnish additional documents to establish his eligibility as a voter during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Punjab.
Chander, a former Indian Ambassador who represented the country in several missions abroad, including Belarus, Japan, Prague and Edinburgh, has been asked to provide documents to establish his citizenship.
The Jalandhar SIR authorities sought the documents from the 75-year-old former diplomat, a resident of Deol Nagar in Jalandhar, who served at various diplomatic posts and has been voting from Jalandhar for many years. He said he had already submitted his Aadhaar card, voter ID and other documents to the Booth Level Officer (BLO), but received a notice asking him to appear with additional proof at an office on Ladowali Road on August 27.
“After retirement, I have voted from Jalandhar in various elections. I voted in 2007, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2022 and 2024. Yet, I have been summoned to appear with proof of residence to verify my citizenship for the electoral roll,’’ he said.
The Embassy of India in Minsk lists him as India’s Ambassador to Belarus from February 16, 2009, to December 31, 2010.
Chander said that while the 2003 electoral roll had been made the baseline in Punjab, he was serving in Japan at the time and was therefore posted abroad. The additional documents were being sought from him to substantiate his citizenship, even though he had been voting all these years, Chander said.
The notice received by Chander on Saturday from the Additional Electoral Registration Officer, Jalandhar (West), stated that the documents he had furnished were inadequate to establish his eligibility as a voter and that his voter details did not match those in the last electoral roll following the SIR.
Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar Varjeet Walia said the notice received by Chander was part of a formal process and nothing out of the ordinary. The SOPs are followed as per the details required for the portal. “Two categories of voters have so far been left out — those who are unmapped or those with logical discrepancies. As per our general directions to BLOs to ease the process, his requisite documents shall be collected from his home, and he need not appear at any office,” he added.
Chander, who retired in December 2010, served as the Indian Ambassador to Belarus and held the positions of Counsellor of India to Japan, Consul General of India in Edinburgh, UK, and Minister at the Embassy of India in Prague.
Born and brought up in Jalandhar, Chander pursued his higher education there. He has been living in Jalandhar for the past 15 years following his retirement.
Chander is the second former Indian ambassador to be asked to provide documents to establish his citizenship to remain enrolled as a voter. Former Indian ambassador Navdeep Suri, who is now settled in Amritsar and is the grandson of renowned Punjabi novelist Nanak Singh, had also received a similar notice.
Suri recently said he faced difficulties establishing his citizenship during the revision process. He said he had submitted his voter ID and Aadhaar card to the BLO but was later informed that some details did not match the 2003 electoral records.
“I read about Suri’s case and, ironically, found myself sailing in the same boat,” Chander said.
Suri on Sunday raised concerns over the process of establishing citizenship during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision. Taking to X, Suri detailed his experience navigating the SIR process and questioned what it meant for ordinary citizens if a former ambassador found the process difficult. He wrote that he was issued a notice by the Election Commission and asked to produce documents after discrepancies were flagged in his details from the 2003 electoral roll.
“I happen to have documents other than voter ID and Aadhaar card. But can’t help asking: If I have trouble establishing my citizenship after representing India in three countries, what’s the fate of the common citizen? Ease of Living, I presume!” he wrote.
He added, “Spoke with BLO, was told that I should come and collect the notice. And then come again with unspecified documents that show I am an Indian citizen. I replied that I was not in India in 2003, so they have asked for passport as proof. Documents uploaded in 2026 don’t match my details from 2003, weird because I was at the Indian High Commission in London in 2003 and didn’t participate in the SIR,."
Suri served in India’s diplomatic missions in Cairo, Damascus, Washington, Dar es Salaam and London, and was India’s Consul General in Johannesburg. He was also India’s High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to Egypt and the UAE.
The SIR follow-up verification for unmapped voters in Punjab will continue until September 12, followed by the publication of the final electoral roll on October 12.
Around 20.69 lakh voters, nearly 10 per cent of the state’s electorate, remained unmapped after the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.