KOLKATA: The West Bengal unit of Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) on Friday urged Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, particularly the members of the Dalit Matua neighborhood, to instantly apply for citizenship below the Citizenship Modification Act (CAA).
“The CAA has fulfilled your long-standing demand for citizenship. I urge all eligible members of the Matua and Hindu refugee communities to fill out the CAA kinds as quickly as doable. Don’t be misled by misinformation,” BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya mentioned at a press convention.
“Each Hindu and Matua neighborhood refugee will change into residents,” he mentioned forward of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s go to to Taherpur in Nadia district bordering Bangladesh.
Bhattacharya’s outreach comes amid allegations by members of the Matua neighborhood and non-Dalit Hindu refugees that a lot of them had been not noted of the continued particular intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll within the state.
At Taherpur, the venue of a rally to be addressed by the prime minister on Saturday morning, the native Ranaghat Lok Sabha MP Jagannath Sarkar mentioned PM Modi would guarantee citizenship for all Matuas.
“Modi hain toh mumkin hai (Something is feasible if Modi is there). We’re assured that every one Matuas will get their citizenship rights quickly,” mentioned Sarkar, who gained the seat in 2019 and 2024.
The ruling Trinamool Congress countered the BJP, saying the PM was coming for injury management.
A separate sect shaped by social reformer Sri Harichand Thakur, Matuas are labeled as scheduled caste who largely migrated from Bangladesh throughout 1947 and 1971. Matuas affect election ends in round 74 of Bengal’s 294 meeting seats and are the most important catchment for the controversial Citizenship Modification Act (CAA).
TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar mentioned tens of millions of Matuas and different Hindu refugees hadn’t been enrolled in the course of the SIR. “The BJP made tall guarantees to those folks and now PM Modi is coming to regulate the injury,” Majumdar mentioned.
The CAA guarantees expedited citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan earlier than December 31, 2014.
In keeping with the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) order, 2025, issued by the Union residence ministry on September 1 this 12 months, members of minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — who entered India earlier than December 31, 2024 to flee spiritual persecution might keep within the nation even when they don’t have any legitimate doc or passport.
Because the BJP had pitched SIR as an train to detect and delete the names of unlawful Muslim infiltrators which might result in their deportation, TMC has focused the BJP, saying the SIR has additionally victimised Hindu refugees.
