Kolkata: A 26-year-old biophysicist whom her parents lovingly named Amrita, a character from novel ‘Na Hanyate’, and Priyadarshinee because of their admiration for Indira Gandhi, was in the adjudication list for a Hindu-sounding name, though her parents are Muslims. After a month-long anxiety, her name was included in the second supplementary list, which came out on Friday night.Priyadarshinee’s mother, Mahua Islam, is a school teacher and father, Abdul Gani, is a retired chemistry professor, who is an alumnus of Presidency College and taught at the college for 15 years (1998-2013) in the chemistry dept. The family has been living in South Dum Dum assembly constituency for 25 years. Amrita studied in Adamas International School, Belghoria, did her graduation from Bidhannagar College and is a gold medallist in biophysics from Kalyani University, from where she did her MSc.“My husband and I do not believe in religion, so we chose such a name,” said Mahua. “The name ‘Amrita’ was inspired by the character in the novel ‘Na Hanyate’ by Maitreyi Devi, while ‘Priyadarshinee’ was chosen out of my admiration for Indira Gandhi, the Iron Lady. But never did I think that my daughter would have to go through such harassment and anxiety for a month because of her name and identity. It pains me a lot to see not only us, but ordinary people, especially the poor, are being targeted.“Echoing her mother, Amrita said she, too, does not believe in religion. She said, “I have never faced any trouble before because of my name, even while making my passport. In the draft electoral roll, my name was there but in the list published on Feb 28, my name went under adjudication. I cast my vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and in the 2021 assembly elections. There was no problem with my name then.”“When I was called for the hearing, I asked everywhere the reason but no one, including the BLO, could give me an answer. At last, the BLO said that maybe it is because of my name, which does not have a surname or any similarity with the parents. This is strange,” Amrita said, adding, “Despite submitting all relevant documents, including passport, my name was under adjudication and was only cleared on Friday when the second supplementary list was published. I was going through a lot of anxiety as I have registered for WBCS exam on the basis of my EPIC number. Now, if my name was deleted, I would perhaps not have been able to appear in it.”She added, “I know people who use just their first name but they did not face any problem. Their parents are Hindu. I probably faced this trouble because my parents are Muslims. Previously, I was not confident if a certain community was being targeted through this exercise but now I see that a large number of Muslim names are being deleted across the state.”Mahua said in spite of having PhD offers from abroad, Amrita did not go as she wanted to stay in the country and pursue her career. “Now, I tell her to leave the country and go abroad because no matter how much we try to be secular and love our country, we will only be targeted as Muslims,” Mahua felt. She added, “No party is concerned about the plight of ordinary people.”
