Jorhat/Tezpur, April 2: The Sadou Asom Bengali Yuba Chatra Federation today asked Bengali Hindus not to vote for parties who did not make their stand clear on giving citizenship to migrants of the community.
Dipak Dey, president of the federation, said, "Bengali Hindus had fled from Bangladesh owing to religious persecution. The BJP before the Lok Sabha elections said they would give them citizenship. But in its vision document for the Assembly polls, there is no mention of the issue."
He said the Tarun Gogoi government had given a no-objection certificate to the Centre and stated that the migrants be treated in a humanitarian way. "The Hindu Bengali migrants are neither encroaching land in Kaziranga National Park nor seeking political power or an autonomous council. All they want is to live peacefully in the land which has given them shelter to work and contribute to the progress of the state," he added.
Dey said BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma while campaigning in Barak Valley sought the support of Hindu Bengalis but in Upper Assam he was vociferous about protecting the rights of only the indigenous ( khilonjia) people.
To a query that no political party was tackling the migrants issue as they were not willing to face a possible backlash in accepting a huge Bengali population, Dey said the figure of 10 lakh was greatly inflated and there were only about 2-3 lakh Bengali Hindus. "Had there been such a huge number, the demographic profile of eight districts could have been overturned and the Hindus would have been in majority," he said.
On the fear that Assamese would become a language spoken by the minority if these migrants were granted citizenship, Dey said the Bengali Hindus would never allow Assamese to become a minority language. "If AASU or other organisations asked us to select Assamese as our spoken language, we would surely do so. We consider ourselves to be Assamese first," he said.
Members of the federation said they were all second generation citizens, their parents having come here before 1951.
"If politicians created borders and gave Sylhet to Bangladesh, what can we do? We always considered ourselves to be part of Assam," Dey said.
He said the main issue was that along with Hindu Bengali migrants, genuine citizens often had to face harassment from the BSF. Cases were filed at random with foreigners tribunals and people were put in detention camps without first verifying their proof of citizenship, he added.
In Tezpur, Upamanyu Hazarika, convener of Prabajan Virodhi Manch, an NGO mobilising opinion against influx, expressed doubts about whether an updated National Register of Citizens would help resolve the vexed issue.
"Merely updating the NRC will only grant citizenship to most Bangladeshis coming to Assam till December 3, 2004. The NRC update will not safeguard the indigenous people. People who are staying in Assam since 1951 must have exclusive rights over land, jobs and other government benefits," he told The Telegraph.
Hazarika, spearheading a signature campaign to draw attention of the Centre towards the issue since August, said they have submitted a memorandum demanding amendment to Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, by making the condition of citizenship by birth to be granted only if both parents are citizens, effective from March 25, 1971 instead of December 3, 2004.
Asked about the implication of the amendment, he said an illegal migrant coming after midnight of March 24, 1971 would continue to be a foreigner. "But their children born in Assam will be regarded as Indian citizens. Say a couple who came to Assam in 1974, has three daughters born in 1975, 1976, and 1977. While the parents are foreigners, their daughters will be citizens. If those daughters marry in 1994, 1995 and 1996 to three illegal migrants and have three children each before 2004, all the children will be citizens. The husbands, though, being illegal migrants will not get citizenship," Hazarika said.
The signature campaign has been carried out in Jorhat, Titabar, Teok, Mariani, Majuli and Tezpur Assembly constituencies and in Mangaldoi, where 60,000 signatures were collected in August last year. "So far, we have collected over six lakh signatures," he said.
The Manch, he said, has invited all political parties to join the campaign to create awareness. "Its a good way to highlight our demand before the government," Hazarika said.
