State govt not genuine towards cause of Bengalis, asserts Kamalakhya in Assam Assembly

January 15: Participating in a special session of the Assam Legislative Assembly which was held on 13 January to discuss the ongoing situation over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Congress MLA of North Karimganj, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha hurled upon the state government some of the issues concerning the Bengali speaking populace, especially of the Barak Valley.

Expressing his reaction in his mother tongue Bengali to the speech of Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Assam Accord and CAA, MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha said, “Before the election, it was promised that every word of Assam Accord would be obliged with; it was also included in the state budget, but now it is being said that the Assam Accord is incomplete. We are not able to understand why the version regarding Assam Accord is changed by the government after the election?”

Commenting on the rights of the indigenous people, MLA Purkayastha said, “We cannot just deny the history. From 1826 to 1874 it was the province of Bombay. Assam Pradesh was created in 1874, wherein Sylhet, Goalpara and Cachar were amalgamated to form greater Assam. Till 1931, the Bengalis were in a majority. In 1947, during partition, 3 & a half thanas of Karimganj were included in Assam and 5 thanas were merged with the then East Pakistan. Karimganj, where I stay now was once Sylhet. After partition, though 5 thanas went to Sylhet, but we were in Assam and we remained here even after partition. That means, none of the inhabitants of Karimganj are migrated populace.”

Saying so, Kamalakhya said, “It’s all about Indian citizenship and not citizenship of Assam. My house is in Karimganj, the country was partitioned, we were in Assam before partition and we are in Assam till now even after partition.” He then narrated an incident after the publication of final NRC on 31 August, 2019. He said, “Some Hindu Bengalis came to me after the publication of the final list whose names were not included. Some stated that they have submitted refugee certificate while others informed that they submitted citizenship certificate and some others gave NRC details of 1951. They informed that they were excluded because there was no such data with the government. Now my question is, if there is no data with the government than for that how calm you have identified them as aliens and sent them to languish in detention camps? You are depriving our bonafide people by stripping off their citizenship but on the other hand, you are passing CAA to give citizenship to people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Kamalakhya gave another instance where he said that a man whose name was not included in final NRC approached him and said that he has nothing to worry as because he is a Hindu-Bengali. He said, “I replied that man that this Act (CAA) is only for those who has come from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This Act is not for you. I then asked him, whether he has given any declaration that he has migrated from Bangladesh. To this, the man replied that he has not migrated from Bangladesh. He said that he has given refugee certificate and NRC of 1951.”

He lamented on the comment passed now-a-days at the sight of any Hindu-Bengali in Assam where they are indiscriminately labelled as entering India through CAA. He then went on to say, “All those 19 lakh people whose names are not in final NRC are all Indians. This I would say because, refugee certificate and citizenship certificate were not accepted and now you are telling that you do not have data of the NRC list of 1951. So my first question to this government is who is responsible for such omission of names of large number of genuine Indians?”

The next issue he raised was about the cut off year mentioned in CAA. He said, “Indeed we feel sorry for religious persecution of Hindu Bengalis in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan. My specific question here is, if religiously persecuted people from those 3 countries be granted citizenship till 2014, than does it mean that after this cut off date there was no religious persecution of minorities in those 3 countries?” He then cited newspaper report and said that in 2019, there were instances of more than 31,000 religious persecution of Hindu-Bengalis in Bangladesh. He then said that, “I think the suggestion given by former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is practical. If the voter list of 2014 is prepared on the basis of the voter list of 1966, then what’s the necessity and justification of CAA?”

Kamlakhya said, “Today we are witnessing love and affection for the Hindu-Bengalis. I am happy at this feeling of yours. The state government has distributed Rs.75 crore among 22 organisations recently. I am happy at this step. I thank the government for giving Rs.10 crore to the Asom Sahitya Sabha. As per 2011 census, 29 percent Bengalis are there in Assam. But not a single Bengali organisation has been given any money by the state government. If you are having so much affection towards the Bengalis, then you should have given money to atleast one or two renowned Bengali organisations like Barak Banga. But you have not done so. Your intention is to take away all rights of Bengalis by pronouncing CAA.”

Finally, taking a dig at the government, MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha said, “If you had real affection for the Bengalis, then you would have said that we do not require CAA because they all are Indian. All of them have voted in 2014, the list for which was prepared on the basis of 1966. The real picture of Assam is that the children in Panchgram paper mill are begging from door to door to collect money for their studies. 27 persons have died in detention camps till now, out of which 15 were Hindu-Bengalis. This proves that this government is not genuine for the cause of Hindu-Bengalis of the state.”