20,613 Hindus declared foreigners in Assam between 1971 and 2014, says CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
The chief minister told the Assembly that 47,928 persons were deemed to be non-citizens in the state during the same period, of whom 27,309 were Muslims.
Foreigners tribunals declared 20,613 Hindus in Assam as non-citizens between 1971 and 2014, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the state Assembly on Thursday.
A total 47,928 persons were declared as foreigners in Assam during the same period, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said in a written response to a question by Asom Gana Parishad MLA Ponakan Baruah.
Of these, 27,309 were Muslims while six belonged to other religions.
Foreigners tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that determine if someone suspected of being a foreigner is in fact an Indian citizen. Assam is the only state in the country to have them. People excluded from the National Register of Citizens for Assam or whose citizenship has been marked as “doubtful” can appeal to the tribunals.
According to the Assam Accord, one has to have lived in the state since before midnight on March 24, 1971, or be a descendant of those who did in order to be considered an Indian citizen.
According to the data shared by Sarma, the largest grouping of declared Hindu foreigners came from Cachar district, at 8,139. Jorhat district saw the largest grouping of declared Muslim foreigners at 4,128.
The cut-off date for fast-tracking Indian citizenship for non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Amendment Act is December 31, 2014.
On July 5, the BJP government in Assam asked the state’s border police not to forward cases of non-Muslims who entered India illegally before 2014 to foreigners tribunals.
This means that Hindu Bengalis and other non-Muslims in the state will, for the time being, not be prosecuted by the tribunals. Existing cases, however, will not be dropped.
The border police, which investigates citizenship cases, was told that non-Muslim foreigners should “be advised” to apply for citizenship on the Citizenship Amendment Act portal and that their cases would be decided by the Union government.
However, only eight persons in Assam have applied for citizenship under the contentious law in the four months since the law’s rules were notified, Sarma had said on July 15. This is because most individuals want to prove their citizenship in a court of law, he said.
Citing the Census 2011, the chief minister also told the Assembly on Thursday that 48.38% of the state’s 3.12 crore population were Assamese-speaking while 28.92% were Bengali speakers.
The state government is closely watching the rise of non-Assamese speakers in the state’s population and its impact on Indigenous communities, Sarma said.
