Detained by the Assam police on suspicion of being an undocumented Bangladeshi national 26 years ago during a work trip there, Cooch Behar resident Nishikant Das has been asked by Assam’s Foreigners Tribunal to prove that he is an Indian citizen.
The revelations from Das and others come at a time when the national Opposition has been opposing tooth and nail the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar in which the Election Commission claims to have already weeded out 65 lakh names.
The opposition parties have dubbed the Election Commission’s exercise – under which IDs like voter and Aadhaar cards are not considered valid except for the “limited purpose” of identity – as a move by the Narendra Modi government to disenfranchise millions of poor people who do not have access to documents the poll penal demands as proof of being citizens.
Das, 75, is the third Hindu Bengali from north Bengal to have been served with a notice by the foreigners tribunal.
“I showed documents before the tribunal like land ownership, my voters’ identity card and also the Aadhaar card. The tribunal rejected those,” Das told TV channels.
He said the tribunal asked him to provide documents that prove his late father, Debendra, was a voter in India.
The NRC (national register of citizens) notice, served to Das in Assamese, states he had entered Assam illegally after March 25, 1971.
“Many years ago I went to Guwahati to work as a labourer,” Das said. “That time too I was detained by the Assam police on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi. After I showed all my documents I was released. After staying in Guwahati for six more months, I returned to my home. Since then I have not visited Guwahati.”
Das said he has procured documents to establish that his late father was a bona fide Indian voter, he told reporters has decided not to submit it before the tribunal.
Another Cooch Behar resident, Uttam Kumar Brajabasi, was among the first Bengalis living in Bengal who had been summoned by Assam’s Foreigner’s Tribunal in January this year. Brajabasi had claimed he had never stepped out beyond Cooch Behar.
Earlier this week a woman, Anjali Seal from Falakata, was served with a similar notice.
Brajabasi attended Mamata Banerjee’s annual rally on July 21 at Esplanade. With the Bengal Assembly polls in mind, the Trinamool is utilising these notices against the BJP to project it as an anti-Bengali party. Most of the detentions and pushbacks reported from BJP-ruled states are of Bengali-speaking Muslims.