BJP joins Assam groups in anti-Bangladesh tirade

The BJP's Assam unit has joined groups like the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to include "Bangladesh infiltrators” living in India's Assam state in his banking-for-all scheme.

Last Thursday, Modi promised to end "financial untouchability" with a scheme to ensure that the majority of households in his country of nearly 1.3 billion people have a bank account within months.

If successful, the scheme could help mend strained state finances by better targeting billions of dollars in welfare spending as well as relieving poverty in a country where about 40 percent of the population has no access to banking.

The government said nearly 15 million people opened accounts at centres around the country on the first day of the programme. The goal is to open 75 million accounts by January next year.

Almost immediately, Assamese radical groups like the AASU appealed to the Union government not to include "Bangladeshi infiltrators” in this scheme.

They argue this will legitimise their stay in the state and help them become Indian citizens.

Now the Assam unit of Modi's own party, BJP, which has staunchly opposed the land boundary deal signed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has joined groups like AASU in opposing inclusion of 'Bangladeshis' in the scheme.

More than a third of Assam's population of 32 million is Muslim, most of them of East Bengali origin.

They have settled in Assam since the British started bringing them to work in the state's farmlands.

The AASU, which is the premier student organisation of Assam, led a fierce movement demanding their expulsion, saying they were foreigners, between 1979 and 1985.  More than 3000 died in the riots at that time.

The students’ body has appealed to the Centre to give top priority to citizenship issue while implementing the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

It apprehends that the bank accounts opened under the scheme might be used as proof of Indian citizenship by the illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

Its advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya said although the economically backward people would be brought into the financial mainstream through this scheme, due to the presence of a large number of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam, there was every possibility that the benefits of PMJDY might be reaped by them and as such extra caution was necessary.

Echoing AASU’s contention, Prasanta Phukan, the BJP MLA from Assam’s Dibrugarh district told bdnews24.com it was quite possible that illegal Bangladeshi citizens would try to take advantage from PMJDY. So, banks and financial institutions must do a thorough check of documents provided by such “suspicious people”.

According to him, it is these citizens who would come first to take benefit from such schemes.

The state BJP would apprise the party’s central leadership about their concern over the issue.

He also said update of National Register of Citizens (NRC) would provide a permanent solution to such serious issues.

Pramila Rani Brahma, the Bodo People Front MLA from Kokrajhar parliament constituency in western Assam, has also appealed to banks and financial Institutions to ensure that no suspicious citizen could open a bank account.

She said that banks should be alert because there was a huge population of suspect citizens in Assam and if illegal Bangladeshi people benefited from PMJDY, the local citizens would be angry.

Brahma represents that Bodo territorial area which has a history of communal clash involving Bengali-speaking Muslim people.

Over 200 people were killed in 2008 and 2012 in communal clashes.

Meanwhile, Sherman Ali Ahmed, a leader of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), has strongly criticised the furore over the whole issue.

He says it is designed to deprive the Bengali-speaking Muslim people of their voting rights by terming them as “Bangladeshi nationals”.

He dared AASU to identify Bangladeshi citizens in Assam. “If there are Bangladeshi citizens in Assam, why can’t AASU identify them instead of talking vaguely?”

He accused the AASU of targeting a particular religious minority for its selfish interest and said that such comments would only vitiate the atmosphere.

He said that if there were Bangladeshis in Assam then they should be deported through a legal process and warned the AASU to refrain from giving such comments against a particular community.