Buoyed by the recent win in Bihar, the BJP is eyeing a spillover in West Bengal, where again the SIR issue has occupied centre stage. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Bengal to launch the party’s campaign for the assembly elections, expected to be held in March-April.
Modi was scheduled to address the Hindu Matua community in Nadia district on December 20, but his helicopter could not land because of dense fog. He had to return to the Kolkata airport and addressed the crowd in Nadia virtually.
“I had said that the Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal, and Bihar has shown the road to victory in Bengal and the way out of jungle raj,” he said.
The BJP has so far failed to unseat Mamata Banerjee; the Trinamool Congress has matched its aggression time and again. However, this year, the BJP hopes that the issue of identity could help it win the state. In October, the Election Commission announced a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters list. As many as 58 lakh voters were left out of the draft list released on December 16.
The day after Modi’s speech, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat reached Kolkata for the organisation’s centenary celebrations. During the event, Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s leader in the legislature, asked him about “increasing Islamic fundamentalism”. He answered: “It is for the Central government to decide whom to allow into India from Bangladesh.”
Later, Shah, during his visit to the state, met key party leaders including former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who had been sidelined for a while. Apparently, Shah told his leaders to set aside their differences and work in tandem to win the elections.
The same day, Chief Minister Banerjee hit out at Shah at a rally in Bankura district. “If infiltrators only exist in Bengal, then who was behind the recent attack in Pahalgam?” she asked. “Who is responsible for the explosion in Delhi? Which ministry is responsible for infiltration?”
Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi on December 31, said, “There is selective targeting and allegations of infiltration to malign West Bengal. We asked the CEC to come out with a list showing how many Bangladeshis or Rohingyas have actually been found in the state.”
Clearly, both parties are using the SIR as fuel for fiery speeches from podiums. There is, however, also a human cost attached to the exercise.
There was anxiety, anger and helplessness at the Hakimpur border check post in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, where a number of people waited for their return to Bangladesh.
“I heard that Bangladeshis will be sent to jail. We do not have documents. I did not try to get documents because my parents are no more,” said Kohinoor Bibi, a 50-year-old widow waiting at the Hakimpur check post, hoping the Border Security Force would send her back to Bangladesh without delay.
Kohinoor had come with her 18-year-old son to Dakshineswar, on the outskirts of Kolkata, for treatment of her diabetes and kidney problem. The Hakimpur check post had seldom seen Bangladeshis wanting to return home.
“People fear they will be jailed if they do not cross the border now,” said Montu Mondol, an Indian autorickshaw driver who lives near the check post. “A three-year-old child fell ill while waiting here, and we villagers gave it food and medicines.”
Kohinoor’s son, Alamin Gazi, who was a labourer in Dakshineswar for three years, hopes to find work in his hometown of Shyamnagar in Bangladesh. “We are going back,” Gazi said. “Otherwise we might be fined and put in jail for two years.”
Jehangir Alam, a house painter, waited at the check post with his wife and daughters, age two and 10, hoping to return to Satkhira in Bangladesh with BSF help. The family had lived near Kolkata for five years. “People there were good to me. If possible, I will get my passport and return to India legally,” said Alam, who fears starvation without a job in Bangladesh. He recounted the story of his cousin who died of starvation in Bangladesh five years ago.
“If you do not get food for one week, you will steal or even murder,” said Gazi. “But I did not do so. I came here out of desperation, and I have brought my wife and children to this border post. I had not known which post to go to, but I somehow managed to come here.”
The BJP had said early October that the SIR would purge one crore illegal voters from the rolls. “There have been 13 lakh deaths and 16 lakh double or triple entries in the voters list,” said Suvendu Adhikari. “So, 29 lakh names will be deleted on the very first day of the SIR. Then there are Bangladeshi Muslims, Rohingyas and fake voters.”
The BJP has often accused the Trinamool Congress of shielding illegal immigrants in West Bengal, who allegedly procure fake Indian identity documents and vote for the ruling party. Illegal Bangladeshi presence in India had a sudden spurt last year, after prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country during a student uprising.
India has often seen an inflow of Matua Hindus who fear persecution in Bangladesh or simply want to join their brethren who have a substantial presence in the North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts of West Bengal. An important temple of the Matuas is in Thakurnagar, in the North 24 Parganas. Called Thakurbari temple, it pays reverence to Harichand Thakur, a social and religious reformer who founded the Matua Mahasangha in the 19th century. The community was formed to respectfully accommodate the Namasudras, who were outcasts.
Both the BJP and the Trinamool have Matua members in Parliament and have offered support to Matuas who do not have proof of Indian citizenship.
Mamata Banerjee took her SIR protest rally from Kolkata to the Matua heartland near Thakurbari in November. She said: “The public elects a government, but now the system is changing. Now the Election Commission will decide who gets to choose the government. It is supposed to be an impartial body, not the BJP’s commission.”
She clarified that her government did not hinder the SIR. “We have only demanded that no genuine voter’s name is deleted,” she clarified.
Litton Rai, a resident of Thakurnagar, pointed out that many Mautas did not have any of the documents that the Election Commission has listed as proof of citizenship. “Why should the SIR happen this way?” he wondered.
Around 17 per cent of 7.6 crore voters in the state are Matua. While the BJP has consolidated its Matua vote bank, the Trinamool seeks to portray itself as the new Matua saviour. Help desks were set up in Thakurnagar, with volunteers assisting Matuas to obtain ‘Hindu minority’ identity cards.
Bisho Swapan Sarkar, a farmer with a family of seven, entered India through the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans 22 years ago. “I have come to the help desk to get my Hindu minority card to prove I am a citizen of this area,” he said. He has a PAN card, Aadhaar card and ration card but not a voter ID card. “Those who paid money could get it,” he said. “But we are poor.”
Anandi Biswas, another Matua, said the SIR would result in the Matuas getting legal voting rights. “The problem is with Muslims entering the country illegally,” he said. “Bangladesh is a Muslim country. Why are they coming here? Let them stay in their country.”
Biswas said his family was forced out of Bangladesh: “We came to India to save our honour. But many of us could not get valid documents here.”
Beyond the religious divide, the central question remains: which immigrants have attained legal Indian citizenship, and how will the Election Commission segregate genuine voters from illegal voters?
Both Muslim and Hindu minority communities are anxious about their future, with the SIR emerging as an existential crisis in a land they have come to call home.