Page 37 - AUG2018E

citizenship

lack of a definition of who is an indig- spilled onto the streets in May this year On this, Harekrishna Deka said, “It
enous Assamese. when the Joint Parliamentary Commit- could be reservation of seats in the Leg-
Assam government in 2015 had said tee held its hearing in Guwahati and islative Assembly, in government jobs, in
that the term Assamese people shall Silchar in Barak Valley. Although BJP is educational institutions, in government
mean and include all indigenous tribals, eager to pass the Bill to fulfil its pre-poll contracts up to a financial limit, restric-
non-tribals and local linguistic popu- promise of citizenship to the “persecuted tion on transfer of land prohibiting non-
lation of Assam living within the four Hindus,” Asom Gana Parishad, its ally in indigenous from purchasing land, which
geographical boundaries of the state Assam and student bodies like AASU is is a utmost importance.” Many have been
and all genuine Indian citizens who strongly against it. demanding that the safeguards be appli-
have permanently settled within the Many in the Bengali dominate Barak cable to those who were Assam citizens
four geographical boundaries of Assam Valley (three districts in South Assam), in 1951 or before.
and accepted practices, propagated and however, are in favour of the Bill. Amid the efforts to finalise the draft
patronised the local language and “The basic fear of the ethnic people NRC, groups representing indigenous
culture of Assam as their own. This of Assam is that the language of mi- communities have stepped up agitation
definition, however, has not yet been grated people from East Pakistan or demanding Scheduled Tribe status to six
accepted by many including AASU Bangladesh: be it Hindu or Muslims is more ethnic communities in the state:
which proposed that those enlisted in Bengali. The proposed provision in the Tai Ahom, Moran, Mottock, Chutia, Koch
the 1951 NRC and their descendants are Citizenship Act 1955 will give the illegal Rajbongshi and Adivasis or those work-
Assamese. migrants the citizenship right despite ing in tea gardens. The Centre has set up
The ever growing fear of the indig- even coming to Assam after March 24, a committee to work out modalities but
enous people about the threat posed 1971, and this will affect the entire ethnic the delay in filing its report has angered
to their identity and culture by “for- people because of the threat faced by the the groups.
eigners” was evident when Narendra indigenous people in their language, cul- The Centre has also decided to set up
Modi-led government introduced the ture and heritage,” said a memorandum a committee to finalise the definition of
Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in submitted to the JPC by Prafulla Kumar who is an indigenous Assamese and till
the Parliament. The bill seeks to expe- Mahanta, who lead the AASU during the then the state’s population is set to be
dite the process of granting citizenship agitation. Mahanta contested and won divided into three categories: the post-
by naturalisation to persecuted Hindu, elections after signing the Accord in 1985 1951 citizens, those between 1951 to 1971
Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian and became chief minister twice. and the post-March 24, 1971 or the illegal
communities who entered India from So, what could be the nature of safe- migrants.
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan guarding the indigenous Assamese as
before December 31, 2014. Thousands promised in Clause 6 of Assam Accord? letters@tehelka.com

shelter in Silchar in south Assam and in Goalpara because our forefathers did not leave Bangladesh pending case earlier. How can they register a case
district in western Assam before they were settled on their own but Indian government brought us against my father as his name was there in the 1966
at Bamungaon in Kamrup district, about 50-km west here,” he added. voters list?” asked Ali.
of Guwahati. Once a case is registered in a Foreigners
All at Bamungaon found their names missing in Hakim Ali, a Bengali-speaking Muslim Tribunal, a person in question has to prove that he
the draft NRC despite submitting the relief eligibility Sixty-year-old Hakim Ali, a mason at Bhulukamari is not a foreigner before names of Ali and his family
certificate of 1964. “I was very young when my fa- village in western Assam’s Kamrup district looked members are included in voters’ list or now in the
ther left Bangladesh. But the government provided very confused as names of his entire six-member NRC. Although Ali is confident that he would be able
us land here and enrolled in the voters’ list. But it family was found missing in the final draft of the to include his name in the NRC as he has 1966 vot-
curtailed our voting rights in 1993 and now left us NRCs released on July 30. Just when he was ers list as a “legacy data,” many Bengali-speaking
out of the NRC. Why are we not in the NRC despite preparing documents to submit a claim for inclusion Muslims like him could fail to pass the citizenship
having documents of 1964? When the NRC update of their names in the final NRC, came a shocker. A test and be declared a foreigner.
process began, we hoped this will remove the Bang- notice from NRC office on August 6 informed him Those who fail to make it to the final NRC, how-
ladeshi tag from us as we have pre-1971 document that a case was pending against him or his father ever, would be able to move courts against a tribunal
but now it seems confusing,” said Hajong. in a foreigner tribunal and so his family’s name was order but if they lose the court case, they would
“We will again move to the NRC office and not included in the draft NRC. have no option but to be in the “illegal foreigner” list.
submit the documents for including us in the NRC “But I did not get any notice about such a

Tehelka / 31 august 2018 37 www.Tehelka.com