8 CAA requests in 4 months: Assam immigrants would rather fight it out in court

Four months after Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules being notified in the state, only eight people have applied for citizenship under the law, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said, blaming anti-CAA protesters for scaring people away.

“Only eight people applied for citizenship under the CAA. Even among them, only two have come for interview,” Sarma said at a press conference on Monday (July 15).

Court rather than CAA

Assam houses a large population of Hindu Bengalis who migrated from what is now Bangladesh during various periods of history. The illegal immigrants also include a sizeable population of Bengali Muslims.

Sarma said up to 50 lakh such illegal Hindu immigrants could get citizenship under the CAA, but it has become quite clear by now that the Bengali Hindus who don’t feature on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would prefer to fight it out in court but not apply under the CAA for citizenship.

“Hindu Bengalis say they are Indians and have documents to prove it. They are saying they will fight a legal battle if needed but won’t apply under the CAA,” said Sarma.

General sentiment

“They all say they came to India before 1971,” said Sarma, referring to the exception made in the CAA for Assam. Section 6A of the Act allows automatic citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants who came to Assam before the 1971 Bangladesh war if they meet certain criteria.

“I have met many people. They are telling us that ‘we are convinced about our Indian citizenship, we want to prove that in a court of law’,” said Sarma, adding that it is the “general sentiment among the people in Assam”.

19 lakh face citizenship doubt

Around 19 lakh people in Assam face a question mark on their citizenship as they did not find their names on the 2019 National Register of Citizenship (NCR) list prepared after a Supreme Court-monitored exercise.

To a question from a journalist, Sarma said no case would be dropped in the Foreigners Tribunals in Assam though the process might be paused for two or three months to give people a chance to apply for citizenship under the CAA.

“Anybody (according to CAA rules) who has come to India before 2015 has the first right to apply for citizenship. If they don’t apply, we will lodge a case for them. This is a statutory instruction. We will deport those who came after 2015,” he said.

No cases dropped

Sarma also clarified that reports claiming that cases against Hindu Bengalis in Foreigner Tribunals were being dropped are “misleading”.

“We cannot drop any case. We are only suggesting that before registering a case, people should apply through the (CAA) portal. Even if a case is filed, there will be no result, as they are entitled to citizenship,” he replied to another query.

Citizenship has been a sensitive issue in Assam for decades, pitting the Assamese against the immigrant Bengalis. The 2019 anti-CAA protests in the state also claimed five lives.

Aadhaar issue

“Those leading the anti-CAA protests had claimed that 30–50 lakh illegal immigrants would gain citizenship from the law. But look at the number now,” said Sarma, adding that even he believed that at least 2–3 lakh people would apply for citizenship.

According to the CAA, passed in 2019, Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who escaped to India from the Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before December 31, 2014, in fear of religious persecution can apply for Indian citizenship.

Sarma said he was also trying to solve the issue of people not having Aadhaar cards by coordinating with the Centre. He shared the incident of a young woman not getting a job with auditing firm Deloitte because she did not have an Aadhaar card.