Under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Union government has granted Indian citizenship to the first person in Assam a Bangladeshi national residing in the state.
Dulan Kumar Das, originally from Sylhet district in Bangladesh, has become the first individual in Assam to receive Indian citizenship through the CAA. Das reportedly entered India illegally from Bangladesh due to religious persecution and had been living in Barak Valley for nearly 36 years.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed the media on Wednesday that only one person has received Indian citizenship in Assam. However, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which opposed the CAA, had claimed that 20 lakh Bangladeshi people would obtain citizenship status.
“We were waiting to see the figure claimed by AASU. At that time, AASU said that lakhs of people were waiting to enter Assam. Are they not ashamed yet? They made public claims in Assam that 20 lakh people would come. Now, with only one person receiving citizenship, where is the 20 lakh? Next year, when AASU observes Swahid Divas, we will observe Fraud Day. How they destabilized a well-functioning government by inciting agitation in Assam. If there had been no CAA agitation, much more work could have been done in Assam. They should apologize today,” CM Sarma said.
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On the other hand, Samujjal Bhattacharya, Chief Advisor of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), stated, “We will not accept the CAA. A case is in the Supreme Court.”
“They passed the CAA in Parliament because they had the numbers and imposed it upon us. We will never accept it. The democratic movement in Assam and the legal fight in the Supreme Court will continue,” Bhattacharya added.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, enable individuals eligible under the CAA-2019 to apply for Indian citizenship. Applications must be submitted online through a government-provided web portal. The Centre notified the rules for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act on March 11.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, aims to grant Indian citizenship to refugees who sought shelter in India before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It benefits six minority communities from these countries by removing legal barriers to rehabilitation and citizenship, offering a dignified life to refugees who have suffered for decades.
(WITH INPUTS FROM ANI)
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