TCN Staff Reporter,
Guwahati : After raising the ‘D (doubtful)’ voter ante inside the Assembly by accusing the police of harassing genuine Indian citizens in the name of detecting illegal migrants, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has now blamed the security men for making “police reports” mandatory for over 1,600 Haj applicants seeking passports.
On Thursday, the Badaruddin Ajmal-party asked Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to direct the police to “immediately clear the pending police reports for passport and put the process on a fast track”.
On 9th June AIUDF leader Sirajuddin Ajmal said, “The Central Haj Committee has said that all those who wish to perform Hajj must submit their passport by June 15. But the regional passport office here is unable to process the applications for passports of about 1,600 applicants due to lack of the mandatory police reports.”
He added, “Hajj pilgrimage is a lifetime opportunity. Many might not be alive or healthy enough to take the pilgrimage the next time. We requested the Chief Minister to launch a special drive to clear all the passport applications on a priority basis keeping in mind the Hajj schedule.”
According to sources, police reports are pending on minor grounds like discrepancies in spellings of names, age variance or change in address that have been notified through affidavits filed before magistrates.
During the run-up to the recently-held elections, the AIUDF’s main poll plank was the fear of minorities being harassed in the name of detecting illegal foreigners by police. And immediately after emerging the largest opposition party in the state, the AIUDF chief had met Gogoi at the latter’s official residence and sought the formation of a committee to scrutinize the citizenship of a doubtful person in accordance with the provisions of the Foreigners’ Act. The ‘perfume baron’ had also sought action against the “faulty procedure followed by the police in detecting illegal foreigners”.
On Wednesday, the AIUDF virtually compelled Gogoi to order the police to be extra cautious from now while arresting any person on suspicion of being an illegal migrant and referring his or her case to the Foreigners Tribunal for establishing the citizenship status.
Gogoi took the decision after the ‘D’ voter issue dominated the opening session of the 13th legislative assembly as the AIUDF mounted pressure on the government to stop harassing genuine Indian citizens in the name of detecting illegal foreigners.
Sirajuddin Ajmal said there were some “glaring examples” of police harassment on genuine Indian citizens. “At the Foreigners’ Tribunal in Goalapara, 1,004 cases of ‘D’ voters were disposed of during 2007 to 2010. Of these cases, 945 were found to be Indian citizens and only 59 were declared illegal migrants,” he added.
Incidentally, after returning to power with a thumping majority, the Congress has prioritized restoration of voting rights of genuine citizens who were denied the privilege after being branded as “doubtful” voters by the Election Commission.
In the first address to the newly-formed 13th Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, Governor J B Patnaik placed the policies and programmes of the new government in the house. “The matter of ‘D’ (doubtful) voters is a concern for the government as a large number of them have been found to be genuine Indians. Steps will be taken to ensure that such people, who have been identified as doubtful voters, are allowed to exercise their rights,” he said.
However, Sirajuddin Ajmal said his party would not remain content with the reference made to “D” voters in Patnaik’s speech. “We will fight tooth and nail to restore the voting rights of genuine citizens who have been branded as ‘D’ voters by the Election Commission. We have moved Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the issue. We will go to the Supreme Court for the sake of the deprived Indian citizens. At the same time, we want the foreigners deported,” said Ajmal.
Just after the election results were declared, which showed minority-dominated areas rejecting the Congress and embracing the AIUDF, Gogoi had admitted that he lost the battle with Badruddin Ajmal over minority voters, who constitute 30 per cent of the electorate and decide the poll outcome in four districts.
In the recent assembly elections, the Congress made one of its best performances with 78 seats. But it was the AIUDF, which surprised the national party, by taking away a huge chunk of minority votes from the Congress’s fold and bagging 18 seats, eight more than its 2006 tally.