'BJP’s endgame is to divide, disenfranchise': TMC slams Amit Shah, alleges covert NRC under SIR in Bengal

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Sunday cited a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to double down on its allegation that the Special Intensive Review of the electoral rolls was, in fact, a cover-up to secretly start the process of drafting a National Register of Citizens in West Bengal, just like neighbouring Assam.

“Every person in Bengal must see through this dangerous game. BJP’s endgame is to divide, disenfranchise, and delegitimise millions in Bengal,” the TMC said on Sunday, a day after Shah said at an event in Patna that India was not a dharmshala (guest house) and only people who were born in this country and who were citizens of this country should have the right to vote. Shah also said that the illegal migrants would be detected, and not only would their names be deleted from the electoral rolls, but they would also be deported.

“To make such a preposterous statement is to declare that every person who migrated to India after Partition, settled here, and became a legitimate citizen is an 'illegal infiltrator' who doesn’t deserve the right to vote,” the TMC stated on Sunday, adding: “By Amit Shah’s logic, every Bengali whose ancestry traces back to Eastern Bengal is an illegal immigrant. Their children, grandchildren, and generations who have lived, worked, and contributed to this land don’t deserve to exercise their franchise.”

The ruling TMC planned a rally to protest what it called a conspiracy to disenfranchise the genuine citizens of the country. The chief minister and the party supremo, Mamata Banerjee, herself, will lead the TMC’s rally in Kolkata on Tuesday, protesting the alleged attempt by the BJP and the government led by the saffron party to use the SIR of the electoral rolls as a prelude to launch a covert process to have an NRC in West Bengal. The rally will coincide with the beginning of the process of door-to-door verification of the voters by the Booth Level Officers for the SIR of the electoral rolls in the state.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party termed the SIR of the electoral rolls in West Bengal as “an exercise to give political and economic freedom” to people of India.

“By Shah’s logic, L K Advani (BJP veteran and former deputy prime minister), one of the founding members of the BJP, is an illegal immigrant since he was born in Karachi and migrated to India after Partition. By his logic, Union Minister Shantanu Thakur should not have the right to vote. By his logic, the entire Matua community, whom the BJP has shamelessly tried to manipulate with false promises of citizenship, are all ‘foreigners’,” the TMC stated on Sunday.

Matuas are a religious sect born out of a reformist movement in the early 19th century and comprising some lower castes, which had then been treated as untouchables by the upper caste Hindus of undivided Bengal. The Matuas grew in number in West Bengal, as many of them migrated from the erstwhile East Pakistan after partition and continued to do so even after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. They now account for nearly 17% of the population of West Bengal and can influence the poll results in 40-45 of the total 294 assembly constituencies in the state.

The SIR of the electoral rolls by the Election Commission triggered fear among the Matuas. The BJP, which has been competing with the TMC to expand its support base within the community, is organising camps to allay the concerns among the members of the community over the implications of the SIR on their citizenship status. Union minister Shantanu Thakur, a leader of the community and a BJP MP, recently said that even if the names of some Matuas were deleted from the voter list due to the SIR, their names would be added later as they could obtain the citizenship of India, taking advantage of the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019.