A social outfit on Sunday organised a march with members of the Matua community in Habra of North 24-Parganas to protest against the proposed special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal, claiming the move would harm the community as many Matua members would face problems with documentation.
The Scheduled Caste Federation, an outfit that works with backwards classes, Matuas and tribals in the state, marched for 3km in Habra, with at least 1,000 participants from the Matua community.
“SIR is a veiled attempt to oust Matua people from the electoral rolls who had taken shelter from Bangladesh at different phases of time. Though the BJP has been trying to claim that as Hindus, the Matuas would not be affected, no one can get relief when SIR begins based on documents,” said Mritunjay Mallick, national president of the Scheduled Caste Federation, who also heads a Matua outfit.
“We began our journey from Habra. Our plan is to organise such protest rallies in 125 Assembly segments in Bengal where the presence of Matuas is significant,” he added.
Amid the Election Commission of India’s indication of starting SIR in Bengal after Bihar, the issue has become a tug-of-war between the ruling Trinamool and the BJP. Anticipating that the Matuas would face problems with SIR, the BJP has instructed its leaders to help community members who were persecuted in Bangladesh to apply for citizenship under the CAA.
Though Sunday’s rally was apparently apolitical, the presence of Trinamool leaders indicated the ruling party sought to take up the SIR issue with the Matuas, believed to back the BJP.
Tanmoy Ghosh, a Trinamool state general secretary from Calcutta who took part in the rally, claimed that Sunday’s event was not political. He said his participation was to promote the movement of the social outfit, which is against the BJP’s “politics of division” through SIR.
“Our top leaders, Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, have made it clear the party will not allow SIR in Bengal. We are protesting against it politically. Besides political protests, we will support social outfits and people’s movements against the BJP’s divisive agenda planned with the EC's help,” Ghosh said.
Mallick, the event organiser, however, said they invited all political parties against SIR, but without political flags. He said a Congress leader was also present at their event.
The BJP said Matuas would have no problem with the SIR. "Trinamool has been trying to politicise the issue, but won't succeed. Our only goal is to remove Rohingya or Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators from the electoral rolls,” said BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar.