A 50-year-old man who illegally entered India in 1988 from Bangladesh has become the first person in Assam to be accorded citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019.

Dulon Das, a resident of Assam’s Cachar district, came to India in 1988 reportedly fleeing religious persecution in Bangladesh, his lawyer said.

A driver by profession who lives with his wife, their two children and one brother in Silchar town, Das was granted citizenship on Tuesday.

The rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act were notified in March, more than four years after the contentious law was passed in Parliament by the Narendra Modi government.

The legislation offers undocumented migrants from six religions from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan a fast track to Indian citizenship, provided they had entered the country before December 31, 2014. Muslims are barred from this route.

The act, which critics say discriminates against Muslims, had triggered a wave of protests across the country.

The law also revised the terms of the Assam Accord, which held that in order to be an Indian citizen in Assam, one has to have lived in the state before midnight of March 24, 1971, or be a descendant of those who did.

In Assam, the Citizenship Amendment Act triggered fierce protests as it sharpened the anxiety among the Assamese of an unabated influx of refugees from Bangladesh. Five people were killed during the protests in 2019.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had dismissed fears that the Citizenship Amendment Act would open the doors to an unchecked influx. He claimed that it would be a “fiasco” in Assam and that few from the state would state would use its provisions to apply for citizenship.

The news of Das being granted citizenship has been criticised by Assamese nationalist groups. “The process of granting citizenship to those who illegally entered Assam from Bangladesh has begun,” said Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the chief of Assam Jatiya Parishad, a party that was born in the movement in 2019 to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act. “Today, one person has received citizenship; tomorrow, many more will. The BJP government is granting citizenship to illegal immigrants purely for vote-bank politics.”

How Dulon Das became Indian

The Bharatiya Janata Party claims that the Citizenship Amendment Act is meant to provide shelter to persecuted minorities, especially Hindus, from India’s neighbouring countries.

However, Bengali Hindus in both Assam and West Bengal have shown little interest in applying for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act as they have struggled to produce the necessary documents.

Under Schedule A1 of the act, applicants need to provide documents proving they came from Bangladesh, Afghanistan or Pakistan. Both in Assam and West Bengal, this has proved to be a hurdle, as most people do not possess documentary evidence of their origins in a foreign country – or are reluctant to provide it, fearing further persecution.

Das, however, was among the rare Bengali Hindus who furnished proof of his origins in Bangladesh. “He has produced enough documents to prove that he came from Sylhet district of Bangladesh to Assam in the year 1988,” Debajyoti Dutta, director of state’s census operations, who is overseeing the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the state, told Scroll.

“For Schedule A1 document, he submitted a 1986 land deed in his father’s name from Sylhet district,” Silchar-based advocate and BJP member Dharmananda Deb, who assisted him in the application, told Scroll. “His father had bought the land from someone called Abdur Rouf at a cost of Rs 8,000.”

Earlier this month, the central government amended the guidelines that asked for a document by any government authority in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, according to a report in The Hindu. It now allows applicants to provide any document issued by the state or the central governments or any quasi-judicial authority in India.

A fiasco?

The BJP had also claimed that the Citizenship Amendment Act would be able to provide relief to Hindu Bengalis who were excluded from Assam’s National Register of Citizens.

The register was updated in 2019 in an attempt to list genuine citizens after fears that large numbers of undocumented migrants from Bangladesh were living in the state.

The register excluded over 19.06 lakh residents, of which 12 lakh were Bengali Hindus.

In March, Himanta Biswa Sarma had said he would resign if any person who has not applied for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens gets citizenship via the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019.

The first beneficiary of the Citizenship Amendment Act in Assam did not even apply for the National Register of Citizens.

Dulon Das did not have the necessary documents to prove that he had arrived in Assam before March 24, 1971, Deb, the Silchar-based advocate who helped him, told Scroll.

“He applied under the CAA because he was afraid of being declared stateless,” Deb said.

Das’s name is enrolled in the voter list of 2007 and his voter ID card was issued in 2013. He also possesses Aadhaar and PAN cards, a driver’s licence, a bank account, and land documents in his name, Deb said.

According to the advocate, the citizenship certificate granted under the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 says that the recipient is considered an Indian citizen from the date they entered the country.“So all these documents will also be treated as valid,” said Deb.

The Citizenship Amendment Act also closes any legal proceedings against them related to illegal migration or citizenship, Deb added.

Dulon Das, however, did not have any pending cases against him at the Foreigners’ Tribunals, nor was he designated a doubtful voter. That is to say, his citizenship was never questioned or in doubt by the state authorities.

‘A betrayal’

The All Assam Students Union, which led a six-year-long anti-immigrant agitation in the 1980s, has described the decision to grant citizenship to Das as a “betrayal of the Assam Accord”.

“Himanta Biswa Sarma, [BJP leaders] Sarbananda Sonowal, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi have once again killed the 860 martyrs who lost their lives during the Assam agitation,” Utpal Sarma, who heads the students’ outfit, said. “It is not about the number of people applying under CAA, it is about principle and law. We will never accept anyone who has come after March 24, 1971.”

The Assam Jatiya Parishad also accused the chief minister of mocking the people’s sentiments and belittling the widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. “The BJP has broken its long-standing promise to uphold the Assam Accord solely for the sake of electoral gains,” Assam Jatiya Parishad chief Gogoi said.