In Assam, citizenship question looms large as BJP-Congress juggle strategies to woo Hindu Bengali voters

Morigaon (Assam): With a set of documents in his hands, Sushil Barman, a Hindu Bengali fisherman looked confused as he sat with his wife Suradhani in his courtyard here at Bordubitup village in central Assam's Morigaon district.

The 75-year-old Barman and his family have been grappling with a citizenship crisis since 2019 when their names were left out of the "final draft" of the NRC that sought to segregate the post-1971 migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and thereby solve the state's decades-old problem of "illegal migrants."

Barman has been living here since 1956 when his father Sushil Barman had migrated from Mymensingh district of erstwhile East Pakistan (present Bangladesh). Their names were left out of the NRC due to a "clerical error" in his father's legacy data fetched from the NRC 1951.

As over 19.06 lakh applicants, half of whom Hindu Bengalis, remained out of the NRC draft, the BJP-led government in Assam projected the much hyped Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 as the only solution to solve the citizenship crisis. "Will the CAA solve our problem?" Barman asked as the Opposition Congress flags the complications involved in the CAA process ahead of Lok Sabha elections in Nagaon constituency comprising Morigaon.

Out of the 17 lakh votes in Nagaon, a Congress stronghold, nearly three lakh are Hindu Bengalis and over 10 lakh are Muslims. 

Hindu Bengalis, who according to organisations representing the community, constitute about 10 to 30 per cent voters in Assam's 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, are considered to be BJP's vote bank.

Barman is an ardent supporter of BJP even as the citizenship crisis confronting the community has remained unresolved despite promises by the Narendra Modi government ahead of elections since 2014.

"Why can't they solve the problem at one go as we all are Hindus?" he asked. Barman said he would vote for BJP this time too as he hopes that the saffron party can only solve the crisis of the Hindus.  

Sushil Barman and his wife Suradhani at Bordubitup village in Morigaon.

The CAA Conundrum

The CAA seeks to offer citizenship to non-Muslim migrants till 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The act, however, has faced a strong resistance from the Assamese communities, who fear that citizenship to "such a large number" of post-1971 Hindu Bengali migrants would reduce them into minorities and thereby threaten their ethnic identity and culture.

In December 2019, Assam witnessed violent protests when the CAA came into being and a fresh agitation in March this year when the rules for implementation of the act were released.

"Indigenous people will never accept CAA," leaders of the influential All Assam Students' Union, which led the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement in Assam (1979-1985), has repeatedly said. 

Many Hindu Bengalis have remained out of the NRC, many dubbed as "D" (doubtful) voters and have been barred from casting their votes by the Election Commission since 1997 while many were sent to foreigners detention camps.

Gopal Mondol, a similar Hindu Bengali resident at neighbouring Botalimari Part-II village, spent more than two years in two foreigners detention camps inside jails at Goalpara and Tezpur since 2017. He was detained by police following a notice of being a "D" voter. Mondol too would vote for BJP but appealed for early settlement of the citizenship crisis. "My children and grandchildren should not face what I have gone through in the detention camps," he said.

Golap Mondol at Botalimari Part-II village in Morigaon

As the anti-CAA sentiment was believed to be strong in the five constituencies, where polling was conducted on April 19, BJP leaders including CM Himanta Biswa Sarma tried to counter the fears saying the CAA would cause no harm to the indigenous Assamese. 

Ahead of polling in the remaining nine seats, including the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley scheduled on April 26, BJP is talking more about benefits the CAA offers to solve the citizenship crisis of the Hindu Bengalis. 

Sarma says those left out of the NRC would apply for citizenship through the CAA. Addressing a poll rally at Hojai, a Bengali-Hindu dominated district in Kaziranga Lok Sabha constituency, CM Sarma recently promised that the "D" voters issue would be solved in six months after the elections.  

Confusion Over CAA

But a clause in the CAA that the applicants must declare themselves to be residents of Bangladesh first made many Hindu Bengalis confused and allowed Congress to attack BJP.

"The CAA is nothing but a ploy of the BJP to divide people on religious lines for votes. There are many genuine Hindu Bengali Indian citizens who were left out of the NRC due to some clerical errors. Instead of helping them to clear their names in the NRC, BJP is asking them to declare themselves as Bangladeshis to get Indian citizenship through the CAA. But the Hindu Bengalis have realised this ploy and will give BJP a reply in this election," Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, who is a candidate in Jorhat Lok Sabha seat, told DH in an interview, recently.

"The Hindu Bengalis in Assam had voted for Congress in the past. They shifted to BJP after the Modi government came to power in 2014. The BJP must not drag this issue for long and find a solution to keep the vote bank intact," a leader of All Assam Bengali Parishad, told DH.