Himanta Biswa Sarma govt’s CAA order provides ‘exemption’ to Assam’s Bengali Hindus. Why is it termed ’problematic’?

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government has asked the state’s border police not to directly refer citizenship cases of ‘Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian’ people who entered India before 2014 to Foreigners Tribunals.

The police have been asked to, instead, encourage people from these communities to apply for citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Exempting Hindu Bengalis?

This essentially means that non-Muslims, including Hindu Bengalis, in Assam, will not be prosecuted by the Foreigners Tribunals – the quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship.

“The border police may not forward cases of persons belonging to Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain and Christian communities who entered India prior to 31st December 2014 directly to Foreigners Tribunals," reads the July 5 directive by Partha Pratim Majumdar, Secretary to the Home & Political Department of Assam government to the Special Director General of Police (Border) of the Assam Police.

"Such persons may be advised to apply to the prescribed form on the portal for citizenship (CAA),” it reads. 

‘Differential Treatment’

The ‘differential treatment’ will not apply to people who entered Assam after December 31 2014, irrespective of their religion, the letter reads.  “Once detected, they should be straight away forwarded to the Foreigners Tribunal for further action,” it reads.

The CAA, which sparked protests in many parts of the country including Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley, was, welcomed in the state’s primarily Bengali-speaking Barak Valley. The CAA rules were notified in March this year.

The law facilitates the fast-tracking of the citizenship process for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India before December 31, 2014.

The Foreigners Tribunals of Assam

Assam, however, follows different processes for declaring people who entered the state after March 24, 1971 as ‘foreigners’ and ‘illegal immigrants’. Trials by Foreigners Tribunals is part of this process.

These quasi-judicial tribunals deal with cases either referred by the border police as a ‘suspect’ foreigner, and those listed as ‘Doubtful (D)’ voters in electoral rolls by Election Commission of India.

In February, the Assam government submitted in the state assembly that the 100 Tribunals in Assam had disposed of about 3,37,186 cases by the end of 2023. As many as 1,59,353 people had been declared foreigners by these Tribunals, the government said adding that as many as 94,149 cases were pending before these Tribunals by then.

Chief Minister Sarma said on July 15 that most Bengali Hindus in Assam who were left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) have refused to take the CAA route. Most of them, Sarma, said want to prove their citizenship in courts or Foreigner Tribunals.

As many as 19.06 lakh applicants were left out of the NRC draft released in August 2019, according to a report in Deccan Herald. About eight lakh of them are Bengali Hindus. The NRC list, which was updated with the cut-off date of March 24, 1971, was said to be done to resolve the ‘illegal migration.’ The cut-off date was decided as per the promises made in the Assam Accord of 1985.

But the CAA passed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi - led Union government in December 2019 tweaked the cut-off date and allowed non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till December 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship.

‘Problematic at many levels’

Guwahati-based advocate Aman Wadud said that the government’s July 5 directive is ‘problematic’ at many levels.

“First, they wanted Indian citizens - both Bengali Hindus and Muslims to prove their citizenship before Foreigners Tribunals, all these people were wrongly accused of being 'illegal migrants'. Now, the Assam government through this latest order (directive) wants non-Muslims (mostly Bengali Hindus) to seek protection under the CAA or in other words to declare themselves to be ‘Bangladeshis,’" Wadud, who is also a member of the Congress party, told Mint.

These Bengali Hindus, who are Indian citizens, Wadud said, would rather present themselves before Foreigners Tribunals than declaring themselves to be 'Bangladeshis' by seeking the CAA route.

“Bengali Hindus and Muslims were wrongly accused of being 'illegal migrants', using the same arbitrary and illegal parameters and now the government directive seeks to protect only the Hindus, through a 'protection' they don't want," said Wadud. 

The border police refer cases of only one 'particular religion' - as the Assam CM hinted indicating towards Muslims- to Tribunals. And that is why it is problematic," he said.