Bangladesh-born Hindu man living in Assam gets citizenship under CAA, Opposition parties slam BJP

Guwahati: The Opposition parties in Assam slammed ruling BJP over a Bangladesh-born Hindu man living in Assam given Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Dulon Das, who was born in Sylhet district of Bangladesh, have been living in Bengali-dominated Silchar in South Assam since 1988. He had applied for Indian citizenship in April days after the Centre issued the rules for implementation of the CAA.

On Tuesday, he received a message from the Centre about confirmation of his Indian citizenship. Das said that his family had migrated due to harassment in Bangladesh.

Although several others living in rest of the country were given citizenship under the CAA recently, Das became the first person living in the Northeast to get Indian citizenship.

Outrage in Northeast

Assam and parts of the Northeast witnessed strong protests in 2020 when the Parliament passed the CAA. At least five protesters died in police firing in Assam when the anti-CAA agitation turned violent.

The Opposition parties and organisations representing the indigenous communities carried out protests claiming that the CAA would allow lakhs of non-Muslim illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh to get Indian citizenship, and this would gradually reduce the indigenous communities into minorities.

The CAA allows the non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh till 2014, who faced religious persecution, to get Indian citizenship.

But organisations in Assam are opposed to it saying this violates the Assam Accord of 1985, that promised to detect and deport all "foreigners" to Bangladesh. The Accord was signed following the six-year-long Assam Agitation or anti-foreigners' movement between 1979 and 1985.

Under the Accord, the Centre in 2005 decided to update the NRC with March 24, 1971as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of all foreigners. More than 19.06 lakh people were left out of the final draft of the NRC, but the Centre tweaked the cut-off date by passing the CAA. The NRC process too have remained stalled due to petitions in the Supreme Court.

"This insults the indigenous people of Assam, who have been fighting against the CAA. This is also an irony that a foreigner has been given Indian citizenship on the 39th anniversary of Assam Accord. It is an insult to 855 martyrs, who had sacrificed their lives during the Assam Agitation," president of Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Lurinjyoti Gogoi said on Wednesday.

The AJP was born out of the anti-CAA agitation in 2020. Gogoi was a leader of All Assam Students' Union, which had led the Assam Agitation.

Senior Congress leader and MLA, Debabrata Saikia said citizenship to the Hindu migrant was part of BJP's communal politics and part of its agenda for votes.

"Congress is against giving citizenship on religious lines. Our party wants implementation of the Assam Accord which promised to detect and deport all post-1971 foreigners."

Another anti-CAA MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, a regional parry, Akhil Gogoi called the CAA unconstitutional. "This is going to be huge threat to the culture and identity of the indigenous people. We strongly oppose this move," he said.

Following vehement protests in the Northeast, the Centre decided to exempt the areas protected under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution having autonomous councils in the region. The Centre also introduced Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Manipur, a system which was already in place in Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Under the ILP, outside visitors are required to take a travel permit. Many says that Assam and Tripura is going to be affected more as large areas of the two states (sharing border with Bangladesh) are still out of the sixth schedule areas.