Union minister, disgruntled BJP MLAs attend Matua community meeting

Shantanu Thakur, the president of Matua Mahasangha, said it was a regular meeting and the organisational issues of the Matua community were discussed

Union minister Shantanu Thakur and three BJP MLAs of the Matua community, who had earlier quit from the WhatsApp groups of the party, on Sunday attended a meeting in which 40 other leaders of the backward Hindu community took part and discussed issues such as the implementation of the CAA, one of the legislators said.

The meeting took place a day after the Union minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways presided over another meeting of disgruntled party MLAs who were upset as, they claimed, the newly constituted state committee overlooked the “sacrifice of the dedicated and loyal leaders”.

BJP MLAs Asok Kirtania, Subrata Thakur and Mukutmani Adhikari - all prominent leaders of the Matua community - attended the meeting at Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas on Sunday.

Also Read: Santanu Thakur, MLAs leave BJP WhatsApp group in protest against Matua exclusion

Subrata Thakur told reporters that the deliberations were solely focused on the issues concerning the Matua community, especially the speedy implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as promised by central leaders before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The CAA was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, and the Presidential nod was received the next day. Subsequently, it was notified by the home ministry. However, the law is yet to be implemented as rules under the CAA are yet to be framed.

The promise of CAA implementation, which has been a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and assembly polls, is considered by its leaders as a plausible factor that led to the rise of the party in Bengal, having bagged 18 parliamentary seats in 2019 parliamentary polls and 77 seats in the assembly election.

"Maybe due to the prevailing pandemic situation, the CAA is yet to see the light of the day. We are still hopeful that the BJP government at the Centre will roll it out soon. We will take up the issue with the honourable PM and the union home minister," Subrata Thakur added.

Shantanu Thakur, who is the president of Matua Mahasangha, a key organisation of the community, however, said it was a regular meeting and the organisational issues of the Matua community were discussed.

Also Read: 'North-South' rift proving to be costly for West Bengal BJP

"It has nothing to do with any matter related to the BJP or anything else. We merely discussed how to boost our community network in the state," he added.

The minister recently stirred up a storm by openly speaking against a section of West Bengal BJP leadership over the formation of the state committee.

After attending a meeting of rebel BJP leaders on Saturday, Thakur had said, "Those who have taken the BJP to its present height have been ignored in the (state) committee. Ninety per cent of such leaders have been omitted from it. Important Matua and other backward caste leaders have been left out. The new committees both at the state and district levels are now packed with inexperienced leaders."

Senior party leaders such as Joyprakash Majumder, Sayantan Basu, Ritesh Tewary, Ashok Kirtania, Subrata Thakur and others had attended the meeting.

These leaders have not been included in the newly-formed state and district committees.

Shantanu Thakur had claimed that members of the Matua and other backward castes did not find a place in those committees.

A politically significant community, the Matuas are split into the BJP and TMC camps.

Member of the Matua community, who make for a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to West Bengal since the 1950s, primarily due to religious persecution in erstwhile East Pakistan and then Bangladesh.

With an estimated 30 lakh Matuas in the state, the community has influence in at least five Lok Sabha seats and nearly 50 assembly seats in Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas districts.

The convenor of West Bengal BJP refugee cell, Mohit Roy, last week claimed that the delay in framing rules under the CAA is fuelling apprehensions among the community about the future of the law.

The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants and given Indian citizenship.

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