Assam citizen count triggers influx fears in North Bengal

COOCH BEHAR: Residents of Cooch Behar villages bordering Assam along the 84-km stretch close to Buxirhat were spending sleepless nights. People who had married off their daughters in Assam years in the past now fear the households will have to leave the state with a Bangladeshi tag on them.

As many 69,000 Bengali-speaking D-voters (in doubt voters) in Assam are facing this uncertainty for months during replace of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), fuelling tension in villages on both facets of the border — Chhagulia, Phelakura, Agamoni and Golapganj.

There was a mad scramble amongst domiciles in Assam from Bengal until months in the past to find out the names in their ancestors in Bengal’s electoral rolls so that they are able to determine Indian citizenship before being branded as Bangladeshis.

“Many people now dwelling in Assam got here to us to procure a certificate declaring that their forefathers were citizens of Cooch Behar and feature their names within the electoral rolls there. We gave them certificates,” mentioned Trinamool MLA Udayan Guha.

But the certificate was not enough to rid the domiciles of the D-voter tag. They were summoned by means of the local management every so often and in lots of circumstances the foreigners’ tribunal was not happy with the certificates.

With the second record of the NCR likely by means of the tip of this month as mandated by means of the Supreme Court, chances are these people might enter the bordering district of Bengal — Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri.

Sensing bother, West Bengal leader minister Mamata Banerjee despatched a three-member ministerial delegation to Assam comprising Firhad Hakim, Gautam Deb, and Rabindranath Ghosh two months in the past on April 11. “We met the Bengali-speaking D-voters from more than a few spaces in Assam. They complained that the local management refused to recognise the certificates in lots of circumstances. Worse, the management has arrange detention centres at three places the place a few of these D-voters are confined. I have been to a few of these centres. I can’t narrate their plight in public,” mentioned Ghosh.

Without questioning the Supreme Court ordained updating of the NCR, Ghosh mentioned: “What moves me is the truth that BJP were given 8 MPs elected from Assam within the Lok Sabha elections based on the 2014 electoral rolls. BJP got here to power within the state following the meeting polls based on the 2016 electoral rolls. They should all resign now that they do not want to recognise the electoral rolls based on which they were given elected,” he mentioned.

The Mamata executive is preserving its doorways open for the Bengali-speaking population if Assam places a “foreigner” tag on them.

Taking a cue from PM Narendra Modi, the Bengal BJP, that has a substantial presence in these parts of North Bengal, has determined to welcome Bengali-speaking Hindus handiest. “Our state unit despatched a delegation to the Parliament Select Committee inspecting the Citizenship Amendment Act. We demanded that the Centre should instantly move an order, if not an Act, to relocate the persecuted Hindus in parts of Bengal,” mentioned Bengal BJP basic secretary Sayantan Basu.

The likely influx of Bengali-speaking population that has been proceeding on this region for the reason that Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 has additionally brought about a vital trade in Cooch Behar’s demography that had as soon as been the land of the Rajbanshis. According to Ghosh, Cooch Behar now has a 32% Rajbanshi population.