Guwahati: Most Bengali Hindus in Assam who were left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) refused to take the route of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) saying they have documents to prove Indian citizenship in courts, state CM Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters on Monday.
Most of them, Sarma said, wished to prove their Indian citizenship in courts or Foreigner Tribunals.
"We thought a large number of people would apply for citizenship through the CAA. But as of today, only eight Bengali Hindus have applied and only two of them have appeared for the interview. Our party workers carried out an outreach programme to encourage the Bengali Hindus to apply under the CAA but most of them refused", Sarma said.
More than 19.06 lakh applicants were left out of the NRC draft released in August 2019. A little over eight lakh are Bengali Hindus. The NRC list, which was updated with the cut-off date of March 24, 1971, was done to resolve Assam's long-standing issue of "illegal migration", mainly from neighbouring Bangladesh. The cut-off date was decided as per the promises made in the Assam Accord of 1985 that was signed following the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement or the Assam Agitation (1979-1985).
But the CAA passed by the Narendra Modi-government in December 2019 tweaked the cut-off date and allowed non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till December 2024 to apply for Indian citizenship.
This angered the organisations representing indigenous communities who claimed that lakhs of Hindu Bengalis who migrated post 1971 would get Indian citizenship through the CAA and, which will thereby reduce them to minorities, threatening their identity and culture. "They (anti-CAA agitators) created a ruckus saying lakhs of people will get citizenship through the CAA. But now their claims have been proved wrong as only eight people have applied", Sarma said on Monday.
Sarma, however, said that all post-2014 migrants would be deported as per provisions in the Foreigners Act.
Directive to border police
Meanwhile, the state home department on July 5 issued a directive to the border police asking them not to refer the cases of pre-2015 migrants belonging to Hindu, Christian, Jain, Parsi, Sikh and Buddhist communities to Foreigner Tribunals. The same should not be applicable to post-2014 migrants.
Reacting to the development, Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), the regional party which was formed out of the anti-CAA agitation in 2020, called this a pro-foreigners move by the BJP for votes.
"The decision disregards the strong sentiments of the indigenous Assamese people against illegal migration. BJP's introduction of the CAA was solely for the benefit of the illegal Bangladeshi vote bank. We will never accept such a move", AJP president and former leader of All Assam Students' Union, Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.