Only eight citizenship applications under CAA in Assam: Himanta Biswa

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said only eight persons have applied for citizenship under the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) from the state so far. Speaking at a press conference in state capital Guwahati, Sarma noted that of these applicants, only two have proceeded to attend interviews with relevant authorities.

On 11 March, the Centre implemented the CAA 2019 by notifying the rules, four years after the law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who came to India before 31 December 2014, and stayed here for five years.

"We conducted outreach programmes in the Barak valley and approached many Hindu Bengali families and asked them to apply for citizenship under CAA. They refused to do so, saying they would prefer fighting their cases at the foreigners' tribunal (FT)," Sarma said.

These tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies exclusive to Assam to decide the nationality issue of 'doubtful' citizens. The CM claimed that most of the Hindu-Bengali families, who were not included in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), told him they had documents to prove their Indian citizenship and prefer the FT route to applying through CAA.

Legal experts said people declared foreigners by the FTs can subsequently apply under the CAA if their nationality verdict is unfavourable. "While a case for citizenship is going on, there is no question of applying for the same under a new law," a senior advocate said.

According to legal provisions, only the FTs can declare a person a foreigner in Assam, and subsequently, higher courts can be approached if the verdict is not favourable.

Asked whether the state government is dropping cases in FTs against Hindu-Bengalis, Sarma clarified, "This is misleading. We cannot drop any case. We are simply advising that before initiating a case, individuals should apply through the CAA portal. Even if a case is filed, there won't be any outcome because these people are eligible for citizenship."

The CM said he would request the advocate-general to flag the issue of CAA so that FTs can give time to people whose cases are going on to apply for citizenship under the newly implemented law. "I can't give a direction to court to pause while deciding citizenship cases. The FT judges themselves have to decide as they know the latest situation," he added.

However, Sarma acknowledged that a letter was issued in the first week of July by the state home department to Assam Police's border wing, instructing them not to refer cases of members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain, and Christian communities who entered India before 31 December 2014, directly to the FTs.

Issued by home and political secretary Parth Pratim Majumdar to the special director-general of police (border), the letter directed that such people should instead be advised to apply through the citizenship portal for their applications to be considered by the Indian government. "It was just a statutory order. There is nothing objectionable in that and it was as per law," Sarma added.

On the small number of applications through the CAA, Sarma said the opposition myth that 15-20 lakh Bangladeshis will get citizenship in Assam has been busted. "During the anti-CAA movement, five Assamese youths lost their lives. So they made the sacrifice to prevent only these eight people! This abysmally low number of eight applications, of which only two turned up for interview, is a bit surprising for us also," he added.

To a query if the fear of being tagged as 'Bangladeshi-turned-Indian citizen' is preventing Hindu-Bengalis from applying through CAA, Sarma said no such factor was working in the Barak valley, but was true to a certain extent of the Brahmaputra valley. He also said anyone who came to Assam in 2015 or later will be deported to their country of origin.

According to the Assam Accord, names of all foreigners coming to the state on or after 25 March 1971 would be detected and deleted from electoral rolls and steps would be taken to deport them. The final NRC was released on 31 August 2019 by excluding over 19.06 lakh residents. from over 3.30 crore applicants.

On people facing issues owing to blocking of Aadhaar cards, Sarma said around nine lakh cards were blocked as people had applied during update work of the NRC. "At that time, the government had transformed the Aadhaar centres to NRC centres. These people had gone there to get Aadhaar, but it was blocked due to a clash of timing only. We are examining the list now," he added.

The CM said after the assessment, the state government will actively take up the issue with the Centre.