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Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government has asked the state\u2019s border police not to directly refer citizenship cases of \u2018Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian\u2019 people who entered India before 2014 to Foreigners Tribunals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The police have been asked to, instead, encourage people from these communities to apply for citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This essentially means that non-Muslims, including Hindu Bengalis, in Assam, will not be prosecuted by the Foreigners Tribunals \u2013 the quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe 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. Such persons may be advised to apply to the prescribed form on the [CAA] portal,\u201d reads the July 5 directive by Partha Pratim Majumdar, Secretary to the Home and Political Department of Assam government addressed to the Special Director General of Police (Border) of the Assam Police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The \u2018differential treatment\u2019 will not apply to people who entered Assam after December 31 2014, irrespective of their religion, the letter reads. \u201cOnce detected, they should be straight away forwarded to the jurisdictional Foreigners Tribunal for further action,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The CAA, which sparked protests in many parts of the country including Assam\u2019s Brahmaputra Valley, was, however, welcomed in the state\u2019s primarily Bengali-speaking Barak Valley. The CAA rules were notified in March this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Act 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Assam, however, follows different processes for declaring people who entered the state after March 24, 1971 as \u2018foreigners\u2019 and \u2018illegal immigrants\u2019. Trials by Foreigners Tribunals is part of this process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n These quasi-judicial tribunals deal with cases either referred by the border police as a \u2018suspect\u2019 foreigner, and those listed as \u2018Doubtful (D)\u2019 voters in electoral rolls by Election Commission of India.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In February, the Assam government<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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 \u2018illegal migration.\u2019 The cut-off date was decided as per the promises made in the Assam Accord of 1985.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Guwahati-based advocate Aman Wadud said that the government\u2019s July 5 directive is \u2018problematic\u2019 at many levels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFirst, they wanted Indian citizens – both Bengali Hindus and Muslims to prove their citizenship before foreign 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 \u2018Bangladeshis,\u2019” Wadud, who is also a member of Congress party, told LiveMint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 1. What if they were marked as D-voters? Will the ECI remove the D from the electoral roll after citizenship is granted under CAA? At what cost ? Read point 2<\/p>\n 2. D-voters are mostly Indian citizens( apparently with rare exceptions, that I have personally not come across), WHY\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/B7AOZonuez<\/a><\/p>\nThe Assam Process<\/h2>\n
The Foreigners Tribunals<\/h2>\n
The Bengali Hindu Question<\/h2>\n
\u2018Problematic at many levels\u2019<\/h2>\n
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