Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh): The Citizenship Amendment Act has emerged as a key poll issue in the Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency, which has a sizeable population of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, with even Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioning it during a recent election rally.
Located on the India-Nepal border, Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh is home to an estimated two lakh Bengali Hindu refugees and the CAA is expected to have a direct impact on them.
At a rally here on Tuesday, Modi attacked opposition parties, including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, saying they were opposing the CAA owing to the pressure of appeasement.
He also asserted that Hindus and Sikhs were compelled to flee from foreign soil due to the atrocities committed against them and asked, "Who will give them citizenship if India does not?" He asked the Hindu refugees living in Pilibhit to apply for citizenship, and 'guaranteed' that 'they will permanently be liberated from problems.' "You will proudly be able to live as a citizen of India," the PM asserted.
There are nearly 18 lakh voters in Pilibhit, where polling will be held in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
BJP candidate Jitin Prasada, a cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh, is pitted against Samajwadi Party's Bhagwat Saran Gangwar and the Bahujan Samaj Party's Anis Ahmed Khan, both former ministers.
While campaigning in the colonies inhabited by the Bengalis, Prasada makes it a point to assure them of Modi's guarantee.
According to some locals, the BJP workers are also helping the Bengali refugees register on the portal launched by the home ministry to apply for citizenship under the CAA.
"The Bengalis here migrated from Bangladesh, the erstwhile East Pakistan in the late 60s and 70s. The migration took place especially around the India-Pakistan war of 1971 when grave atrocities were being committed on Hindus, who were in a minority there, by the state-backed majority Muslims," said Vipin Kumar Baoli, a Hindu refugee associated with an NGO that provides free education and health facilities to the poor.
Baoli said currently, the second and third generations of migrants from Bangladesh are spread across Pilibhit.
According to the district administration, the migrants are concentrated in 'Bengali colonies' in the Neuria, Mala and Kalinagar areas of the district. While some residents have a voter ID card, very few have an identity card to prove their residence.
"In the absence of a valid ID proof like an Aadhar card or a certificate of naturalisation, it becomes very difficult for us to buy land or property, start a business or even open a bank account," Baoli explained.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on March 11 notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules that would enable the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The act was passed by Parliament in 2019.
Under the CAA, citizenship will be given to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians who have migrated to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan by December 31, 2014.
"My parents fled from Bangladesh and came here in the early 70s. I was hardly five years old when they came here," recalled Kadam Das, a resident of Maharajpur village under Kalinagar Tehsil.
A father of four, Das said his parents' lifelong pursuit was to get Indian citizenship and the CAA has given them hope.
Das clutched a plastic folder containing important documents like the family's IDs issued in erstwhile East Pakistan and the letters written to the Union home ministry seeking Indian citizenship. This was preserved for years by my parents. Almost every family in this area has such a folder, Das said.
"We are settlers here, we cannot own anything and the future still remains uncertain. It is very hard to explain this pain. But the CAA has given us hope," says Das in Hindi laced with Bengali.
Pramod Das, a Maths teacher at the local private school and resident of the Bengali colony in Neuria said, "My parents were from Bangladesh but I was born here. I grew up, studied here, have local friends and even have a job here. Yet, I am not as equal as a local because I have nothing to prove that I am an Indian. This feels unfair and I am all for supporting someone who understands our pain," he said.
According to the internal surveys of political parties, the Bengali voters have traditionally supported BJP leader Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi who have been elected from the seat multiple times.
Varun Gandhi's marriage into a Bengali family in 2011 also fostered this bond.
However, as the mother-son duo of Maneka and Varun Gandhi will not be in the fray from the constituency for the first time in more than three decades, the SP is going all out to lure the Bengali voters.
As a result, Gangwar has held around a dozen public meetings in Bengali colonies this month.
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