ASSAM OPPOSE COMMUNALISATION OF CITIZENSHIP
The tag of “foreigners”
attached to a section of people
who migrated to Assam decades
back continues to be a convenient
tool for the parties of ruling classes
to harass the concerned people.
Assam is a State where the
National Register of Citizens was
first prepared in 1951. A Citizenship
Act was enacted in 1955. But the
list of citizenship was not updated
for a long time.
Assam attracted a good
chunk of the masses of peasants
and tea plantation workers from
West Bengal at various times.
Many of them made Assam as
their permanent residence. In the
context of the 1971 war, many
people from the bordering villages
of present Bangla Desh had
migrated to Assam. The Indian
Govt. had opened the doors of
Assam for them.
In 1979 the AASU and AGSP
led an agitati on in Assam
demanding the identification and
deportation of foreigners from
Assam. There reflected the
tendencies of viewing even the
people from West Bengal as
foreigners. The agitation took a
violent form and went on for six
years. At last, the Rajiv Gandhi
Govt. at the Centre and the AASU
and AGSP – signed an Assam
Peace Accord on Aug 15, 1985.
This Accord said that anyone who
came to Assam after the midnight
of Mar 24, 1971 will be considered
as a “foreigner.” The State Govt.
must ‘detect and deport’ the illegal
immigrants. However, the
successive govt. in the state made
little progress in their job. In 2005,
the Central and state Govt. and
AASU had signed another
Agreement. It mandated the
February - 2018
updating of NRC at the earliest.
But this work was stopped in the
half way. On the petition of a NGO,
the Supreme Court had directed
the state Govt. to complete the
work.
While the job of updating the
lists of NRC was still incomplete,
the BJP Govt. at the Centre came
to the fore to give a dangerous
twist to the problem. It introduced
a “ Citizenship (Amendment) Bill
in Parliamenin2016 to amend the
1955 Act. This Bill has triggered
off serious objections from the
Opposition. The BJP Govt. was
forced to send this Bill to the Joint
Select Committee of Parliament in
Aug’ 2016.
At the midnight on Dec 31,
2017, a first Draft of the Updated
NRC was published in Assam. It
noted that 13.9 million names out
of 32.9 million are under scrutiny.
Those whose names are under
the scrutiny or missing are worried
about their status. The State Govt.
assures that there is no reason to
panic as there is scope for
corrections even after the final
draft is out.
The BJP Govt’s Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill, 2016 proposes
to grant citizenship to ‘religious
minorities’, barring the Muslims. It
considers Hindu, Sikh, Budhist,
Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants
from Bangla Desh, Afghanistan
and Pakistan as eligible for
citizenship. Here is a move to
discriminate people based on
religion and communalise the
whole citizenship granting exercise.
It is also a move by the Sangh
Parivar to smuggle the idea of
Hindu Nation from a back door.
Thus the granting of
citizenship in Assam was
complicated and made a never
ending exercise. All these years,
the ruling classes and Govts used
the undetermined status of many
to subject to various harassments,
inequality and deny them the rights
and evict them from the lands.
They also used the insecure
status of migrant people to reap
votes out of it. Now the BJP’s
move to exclude the Muslim
migrants from the eligibility of
citizenship pushes them into a
most pathetic state. The
democratic forces must oppose
this policy tooth and nail and stand
by the just right of the Muslim
people for Citizenship.
Correction of Printing Errors in Class Struggle
November 2017 Issue :
Page 12, Para 2 of Com. Subodh Mitra’s Article,
“THE IMPORTANCE OF.....” : Replace the name BUKHARIN with
BAKUNIN
January 2018 Issue :
Page 2, “RED SALUTE TO COM. KHUDAN MALLICK” :
Replace “90-year old” with “75 year old” Replace “since 1949” with
“at a younger age”
- Editor
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