GUWAHATI
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) let down Bengali Hindus with the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 which is much ado about nothing, Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev said on April 21.
Ms. Dev, a Rajya Sabha member, said the euphoria among the Bengali Hindus surrounding the CAA and the framing of its rules has turned into disillusionment. She is from southern Assam’s Barak Valley where Bengali Hindus and Muslims are numerically almost equal.
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The CAA seeks to fast-track Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who took refuge in India till December 31, 2014.
During her campaign for Radheshyam Biswas, the Trinamool candidate from the Silchar Lok Sabha constituency, Ms. Dev said the CAA was an overused political tool that had nothing to offer to the Hindus. She also accused the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of neglecting the Bengali Hindus and Muslims in Barak Valley.
“The stringent CAA rules, notified over four years after its enactment, have made it almost impossible for people to apply. The requirements add to the hurdles faced by Bengali Hindus during the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC),” she said.
The complete draft of the NRC was published in August 2019, excluding some 19.06 lakh out of 3.3 crore applicants from the citizenship list for lack of documents to prove their nationality.
Ms. Dev emphasised the Trinamool’s commitment to providing a fresh alternative for voters in Assam.
The Trinamool is contesting four of Assam’s 14 parliamentary constituencies. Barpeta, Kokrajhar, and Lakhimpur are the other seats.
