E-Paper
Citizenship for Matuas takes centre stage in Bengal
CAA fast-tracks citizenship to Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi and Sikh refugees who entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution.
The granting of citizenship certificates to 300 people by the Centre has put the spotlight on a tussle between the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is likely to influence voting in the remaining 17 seats in West Bengal that go to the polls in the sixth and seventh phases.
At least 11 of these 17 seats spread across eight districts, including Kolkata, are home to a sizable number of Namasudra and Matua community voters, many of whom, or their ancestors, came as refugees from East Pakistan during Partition and from Bangladesh after the 1971 Liberation War. These communities are clubbed under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. Hindus account for 70.54 % of West Bengal’s population of 91.3 million, according to the 2011 Census. The state’s SC population stood at 21.4 million, or 23.51 % of the total population, in 2011.
In Purulia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked this issue this week. “I promised I would grant citizenship to the refugee families. This nation had been expecting this from us since Independence. These people are from SC communities. TMC is opposing CAA. Let TMC, Congress and Left note this down today. You won’t be able to do anything as long as Modi is alive.”
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that some of those who received the certificates are Afghan nationals who have nothing to do with West Bengal. “You must have seen an advertisement in some newspapers. You see the photos of some people thanking Narendra Modi and the home minister for enforcing CAA. This is all a lie. It is fake.”
CAA fast-tracks citizenship to Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi and Sikh refugees who entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution.
Before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which BJP won 18 of West Bengal’s 42 seats, it promised to enforce CAA to secure the confidence of the Matuas, a religious sect formed by social reformer Sri Harichand Thakur (1812-78).
When CAA was enforced on March 11, the TMC saw it as a strategic move by the BJP. However, the Matuas have been anxious as the CAA portal seeks signed affidavits from applicants along with documents such as passport, land record or birth certificate issued by the Bangladesh government. “Most of the Matuas from Bangladesh destroyed their passports and other documents after procuring Aadhaar and ration cards,” said Mahitosh Baidya, the All India Matua Mahasangha general secretary.
While addressing at least two rallies every day, Banerjee is projecting CAA as a threat to both Hindus and Muslims, saying it is a precursor to enforcement of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that left 1.9 million Hindus in jeopardy in BJP-ruled Assam in 2018, and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), on which Uttarakhand passed a law in February. She is telling voters that anyone applying for citizenship will be voluntarily declaring herself an illegal immigrant since CAA rules seek documents certifying foreign origin.
“The rules have exposed the BJP. My father-in-law Pramatha Ranjan Thakur’s main demand from the Centre post 1947 was that Dalit and Namasudra refugees should get Indian citizenship without having to produce any document,” Mamata Bala Thakur said. Pramatha Ranjan Thakur was a legislative assembly member from the Bengal province in 1946.
