22 persons have been served with notices while 17 others are on the list, giving them sleepless nights.And the people targeted belong to the extremely poor and backward class. Sontosh Shabdakar and Monotosh Shabdakar, rickshaw-puller brothers of Paikan village on the outskirts of Hailakandi town were arrested one day and pushed back to the other side of the border, a month ago, leaving their family in the lurch. Manik Das of Thaligram village in Cachar, a banana vendor, met the same fate. Former CRPF jawan Anath Bandhu Biswas and his wife Arati Biswas of Boropayek village of Nellie in Morigaon district have been branded ‘D’ voters. Jogendra Samadar of Uttar Salmara in Goalpara and the eight members of his family have also been put on the doubtful list. Pranhari Baishnav of Panchgram is in a detention camp. Gobinda Chandra Das of Dholcherra has also been sent to a detention camp. Ajit Das, resident of Malinibeel near this town, was declared a foreigner and served with a ‘quit notice’ despite him having exercised his franchise in the elections of 2001, 2006 and 2011.

Bhupendra Paul of Dholcherra, who received a bullet injury on his right hand during the language movement of 1961 in the valley, has also been branded ‘D’.  The list is endless.

In all, 1.57 lakh ‘D’ voters, according to official sources, are facing trial before the 36 Foreigners’ Tribunals. How has this ‘D’ voter issue cropped up? Anil Chandra Dey, President of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, said that the door to door survey conducted by the election department of Assam Government in 1997 across the state to enlist the names of genuine Indian citizens was found to be full of anomalies.

Absentees in their homes during survey in one sweep were branded ‘D’ voters on the electoral rolls. Flooded with complaints from various civil and social bodies on the presence of a huge number of foreigners, the Election Commission of India on the 17th of July, 1997 issued a circular to the State of Assam to mark ‘D’ against the names of the voters who were found missing or absent. Those branded doubtful, the Election Commission directed, should be put on trial before the Foreigners’ Tribunals.

What added a new dimension to the vexed problem was the judgement of honourable judge of Gauhati High Court, BK Sarma on the 4th of April, 2004 to the effect that those put on trial before the Foreigners’ Tribunal should be sent to detention camps till their cases were disposed of. The judgement was based on the fact that after identification, the Bangladeshis resorted to vanishing acts. Advocate Dey pointed out that there are only two detention camps in the state, one at Goalpara and the other at Kokrajhar. Around 148 ‘D’ voters till date have been lodged in jails due to lack of space in camps. He termed it quite inhuman to detain the voters along with the convicts in jails.

Though the eminent lawyer of Guwahati, Hafeez Rashid Ahmed Chowdhury, filed a PIL in the High Court on the issue of ‘D’ voters, the honourable Court did issue a stay order on the 5th of August 5. Anil Chandra Dey explained it was in respect of pending cases only without any intervention in the process of detention and deportation of those suspected to be illegal migrants. This is not a solution to the problem.

 

The door to door survey conducted by the election department of Assam Government in 1997 across the state to enlist the names of genuine Indian citizens was found to be full of anomalies.

Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, General Secretary, Santanu Naik, said it has now been decided after critically examining and reviewing the Foreigners’ Act of 1946 and the Immigrants (expulsion from Assam) Act of 1950 to file a PIL in the Supreme Court, seeking amendment of both the Acts so that the Hindu Bengalis of Assam are treated differently from the infiltrators, considering the circumstances, civil disturbances and religious persecution to which they have been subjected to besides being forced to leave their hearths and homes in their native land of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

He revealed that a PIL would be filed under article 32 of the Indian Constitution. The PIL would forcefully plea with the Apex Court to quash the ‘D’ voters circular issued by the Election Commission.

Interestingly, the State Government advocate who contested the PIL filed by Hafeez Rashid Chowdhury opposed any intervention of the High Court on the matter of ‘D’ voters, leave aside the protection for Hindu victims of police harassment. It only exposed the double standards of the Congress Government whose Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had assured of humanitarian consideration for the Hindu Bengalis, being the victims of partition and subsequent repression in Bangladesh, pointed out Santanu Naik.

It is to be recalled here that the NDA Government amended the Constitution in 2004 to grant citizenship to Hindu migrants from Pakistan to Gujarat and Rajasthan who had to leave their native land under compulsions. The amendment could not be possible, clarified Naik, in respect of Assam as the IM(DT) Act of 1983 was in force which was quashed by the Supreme Court in response to a PIL filed by the then AGP leader Sarvananda Sanowal who is now with BJP. In the meantime, the BJP too has drafted a Citizenship Law Amendment Bill 2010 for introduction in the current session of the Parliament for granting citizenship to Hindu migrants to Assam. Once the PIL is filed before the Supreme Court and the Amendment Bill is passed in the Parliament, it is expected to bring relief to the Hindu ‘D’ voters.

Jyoti Lal Chowdhury