Just a few hours away from the India-Bangladesh border, the Barasat Municipality in Bengal is in the eye of the storm when it comes to the clean-up of electoral rolls through the special intensive revision (SIR) undertaken by the Election Commission of India.
It’s an open secret that Barasat, barely 25 km from Kolkata, houses many individuals who have moved in and out through the porous borders, living sometimes in an informal arrangement as dual citizens.
The SIR being conflated with citizenship has put the fear of statelessness and persecution for many living in spaces connected with border towns.
In tune with this conflation, the central government has assured that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will ensure that Hindus counted out will be included back as citizens.
But who decides who remains and who doesn’t? Who carries out the sorting and classification of citizens?
Video Editor: Joy Das