BJP’s CAA gambit has enthused Matuas, but it could be problematic

One of the main reasons for passing this law could be to win the electoral support of the Matua community of West Bengal, which is a sect of the Scheduled Caste Namsudras, who migrated from East Pakistan/Bangladesh in waves

More than four years after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 was passed, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre notified the rules on 11 March, in another effort to conquer West Bengal.

To recapitulate, the amended Act, passed in December 2019, made provisions for the fast-tracked grant of citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. The residence requirement was reduced from 11 in the past 14 years to five. It also said people in these categories earlier deemed illegal migrants would be treated from their date of entry as legal.

The BJP rhetoric used to justify the Act was that it would provide citizenship to persecuted people, but the Act doesn’t mention this. The argument against this divisive and cynical legislation is that it infringes the constitutional provision barring discrimination. Article 14 says the State ‘shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws’. Person not citizen. This discrimination against Muslims, based on the BJP’s demonisation of them, is a clear dog-whistling tactic fundamental to Sangh parivar politics.

No one has any problem with the grant of citizenship to any person whose status is tantamount to that of a refugee or a stateless person, even though India has not yet signed the United Nation’s 1951 Refugee Convention. But, surely, among the most persecuted and largest group of stateless persons, the Rohingyas also deserve consideration.

One of the main reasons for passing this law was to win the electoral support of the Matua community of West Bengal, which is a sect of the Scheduled Caste Namsudras, who migrated from East Pakistan/Bangladesh in waves, mostly by the 1970s. What, then, is the status of a majority of Matuas?

Many already have citizenship or a status that is tantamount to it, though they may not formally be citizens. What does that mean? The Matuas have all the documentation required to receive State benefits — they have Aadhaar cards. They have the documentation required to open bank accounts, own property, work, and otherwise lead a normal life. Crucially, they also have the documentation that enables them to vote and contest elections — the ultimate marker of citizenship. The significant point is that they are, thus, a ‘vote bank’.

Combined with the fact that most members of the Matua community were either born in West Bengal or have lived here for over half a century points to one indisputable fact — that formal citizenship could have been granted to them under the old citizenship regime. An amended law was not necessary. The fact that they were not, in fact, granted citizenship was partly because of something the BJP did two decades ago.

The problem of status — citizen/refugee/infiltrator — was complicated by an amendment to the citizenship law passed by the National Democratic Alliance government in 2003, which introduced the concept of doubtful citizen and made the grant of citizenship harder. Now, procedural niggles built into the 2019 Act may stymie the automatic grant of citizenship to the Matuas.

Nevertheless, the CAA unquestionably succeeded in winning for the BJP the community’s support in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections. There are two Lok Sabha seats that are swung by the Matua vote — Bongaon and Ranaghat. The BJP won both in 2019. Seventeen Assembly seats, too are swung by the Matuas, where they constitute over 40 per cent of the electorate. The BJP swept these seats in the 2021 Assembly elections, while the Trinamool Congress did well among other Scheduled Castes and contained the damage.

The failure of the BJP government to ‘implement’ CAA for four years had divided the Matuas. Faced with electoral uncertainty over the two seats, the BJP has hurriedly notified the CAA rules. The celebrations in the Matua camp suggest that this ploy may help retain them, but there could be a twist in the tail.

It’s not yet clear that the BJP will speedily be able to give citizenship as promised. So, while retaining the Matua strongholds of Bongaon and Ranghat may not be unproblematic, there could be a backlash fuelled by the suspicion that this is a stratagem to introduce the National Register of Citizens. This could consolidate other groups — for instance, the Rajbanshis of North Bengal — against the BJP.

(Suhit K Sen is author of ‘The Paradox of Populism: The Indira Gandhi Years, 1966-1977’.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.