1.5 lac Bengali Muslims sans citizenship in Assam

Despite India’s tall claims of biggest democracy of the world and secularism, Bengali Muslims are facing citizenship issues in the Indian state of Assam. 

As per details available, the Bengali-speaking Muslim residents of Assam have never been considered as legal citizens of Assam. This undemocratic and prejudiced practice also stands in sheer conflict with the oft-trumpeted Indian claim that they (Indian state and government) are time-tested friends and supporters of Bengalis especially Muslims of Bengali origin. 

The denial of Indian citizenship status to these people since 1960s has rendered their lives miserable as they continue to suffer in this ‘hung citizenship or no-citizenship’ position. Resultantly, these Muslims have continuously been compelled to seek forced asylum in Bangladesh.

In fact, Hindu fundamentalists have never accepted these Bengali-speaking Muslims as citizens of Assam and, as such, they keep terrorizing these Muslims as outsiders. Then, there is D-Voter policy in force in Assam that has deprived about 1.5 lac Muslims of citizenship in Assam.

And ever since BJP took over the reins of government in India, the situation has become even worse for the Muslims of Assam like rest of the country where strong biases are prevailing in relationship with minorities living inside India. 

As regards D-voter, it is also referred to as Dubious voter or Doubtful voter. It is a category of voters in Assam who are disenfranchised by the government on account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials. The person declared as D-voter is not given the elector's photo identity card. Instances of hatred for all categories of Bengalese have also come to the fore as some Hindus from Bangladesh have also been subjected to this kind of discrimination. The victims include Bengali Hindus who migrated from East Pakistan and Bangladesh before and after 1971, respectively. These Bengali Hindus have also been badly affected by this D-voter categorization.