It is impossible to not hear the term ‘Bangladeshi’ when you are in Assam. It is a term that divides Assam; a region where human migration precedes national boundaries by centuries. No one ever says that there are no Bangladeshis in Assam; the questions seem far more focused on “what to do with them”. It is also pretty clear that no one exactly knows who a “Bangladeshi” is: Assamese Muslims, Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus and sometimes even Assamese Hindus, along with even Nepalis and Bodos, have all been singled out as Bangladeshis. When human lives are reduced to statistics and government policies put one religion against the other, it is the marginalised who suffer the most.
The Idea Of a ‘Foreigner’:
The Assam Accord, signed in 1985, has played an extremely important role in this regard. The issue of ‘foreigner’ was central to this Accord. Contested migrations after two partitions (1947 and 1971) along with a subsequent surge in Assamese nationalism resulted in a policing of “foreigners”. As a result, the Assam accord enlisted a series of measures to be taken as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the All Assam Students Union along with Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. One of the most important points of the Accord was that all ‘foreigners’ who had arrived after March 1971 be expelled from the state.
The Creation of a D voter:
Following the Accord, it was in July 1997 that the Election Commission of India (ECI) asked the state government to segregate its citizens and non-citizens. Following this, the ECI prepared a list of voters in the state and mark ‘D’ (doubtful) next to the names of people who were suspected to be non-citizens. In 1997, this list included 3.5 lakh names. As of February 2017 according to Assam Parliamentary Affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, the Assam Border Police were conducting investigations into 6,21,688 cases related to foreigners till October 2016. Of these, 4,44,189 were referred to the 100 Tribunals established in the state, where about 2,01,928 cases are still pending.
Detentions:
Among the cases that have been ‘resolved’ however, are the stories of about 1,800 persons who have been detained across Assam on charges of being a Bangladeshi. Even the most cursory conversations with the families of the detained people show that almost all the detainees belong to poor families who could barely afford any lawyers or appeal against the judgement issued by the Foreigners’ Tribunal. Since this issue comes under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 1964, a lot of times the lawyers are unaware of how to approach the case but nevertheless take it for easy money.
In this three-part series, TwoCircles.net looks at how detention camps are wreaking havoc with the lives of people, especially Muslims, across the state. In the third of a three-part series, we tell the story of Rehat Ali, a senior citizen from Assam’s Hajo town, who was arrested at the end of December 2015 because there were a few spelling mistakes in his name in some of his government documents.His family is trying hard to get him released and now, their only hope is from the Supreme Court.
By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net
The issue of a ‘foreigner’ and thereby ‘Bangladeshi’ in Assam is so contentious that local families often go to great lengths to claim that they have always been living in a certain region of the state. Rehat Ali’s family, however, tells us at the beginning of our conversation that they did migrate from Bangladesh out of choice. “My grandfather’s father came here in the 1920s from Bangladesh. He must have liked this place, I guess because he settled here and since then all members of our family have been brought up in this village,” says Lukman Ali, the younger son of Rehat Ali and a resident of Kopanikuchi village, near the town of Hajo. In fact, Lukman points out that the name of his family appears in the land records as early as 1928. However, as we sit down on a bright afternoon outside their home, it is easy to see why Ali insists on records from as early as 1928 even though the Assam Accords question only those coming to the state post-1971. On December 29, 2015, Rehat Ali became one of the 1,800 persons or so detained on charges of being a Bangladeshi. As his son says, “He is of Bangladeshi descent like all my family is, but he is an illegal Bangladeshi residing in India? No.”
The events that took place prior to the arrest of Rehat Ali also show that regardless of how long you have lived in Assam, how many government surveys you have participated in or how many papers you have in your name proving your residence, there is little you can do to be safe. Rehat Ali, for example, has his name in the 1951 National Register of Citizens Record; his name appears on every electoral roll since then; all his children are registered voters; all his brothers and their extended families are also voters. A farmer who had finally retired from work but continued to run a small sweet shop to support his family, Rehat Ali wanted to enjoy his life as a grandfather. Instead, he has been condemned to the detention camp in Goalpara. And the reason? A couple of spelling mistakes.
In one of the electoral rolls in the previous elections, Rehat Ali’s name was misspelt as Rehaja Ali. Lukman says he doesn’t remember exactly which year this happened but says that this was a clerical mistake that had nothing to do with his father’s citizenship. “Here is a simple truth: to question his citizenship because his name was misspelt is absurd. Let alone the fact that Rehaja is the name of a woman…how can these identities be confused?” he asks.
But in case of Rehat Ali, there was another stroke of misfortune: his father’s name was Monruddin Ali, although he was also known as Monu Ali. “Monu was my grandfather’s ‘daaknam’ (calling name). In one of the documents, his name was written as Monu Ali instead of Monruddin Ali. This apparently led to doubts over my father’s legacy; the fact that he could not convince the court that he is Rehat Ali, son of Monruddin Ali, because of two documents where his and his father’s name were misspelt, led him to be detained,” says Lukman.
It is a story that is familiar in Assam, yet few know what to do to avoid it. Munna, the elder son of Rehat, says that after his father was detained, the rest of the family lived in fear too. “We thought if he, a senior citizen, can be locked up, what stops them from taking us too? What will happen to our children? What do we do to avoid this situation?” he asks. “It has been about three years now since our father was taken away, but we still fear that sometimes, we might be next. No one knows who is safe and who isn’t,” he adds.
Ever since Rehat Ali was taken away to the detention camp, the condition of his wife has deteriorated substantially, says Lukman. “My mother was not well even when he was here but after he left, there has been substantial damage to her brain. She has been hospitalized twice and even now she is under medical care…and unfortunately, my father cannot even go to see her,” he says.
Rehat Ali and his brother Munna, along with their family members, have now pinned all their hopes with the Supreme Court after the Gauhati High Court rejected their appeal challenging the verdict of the Hajo Foreigners’ Tribunal. While admitting that there is every chance that the Supreme Court will pass an order similar to that issued by the Foreigner’s Tribunal, the family is not willing to give up hope just yet. “All the money we had collectively saved is gone for good. Even the house he wanted to build was left half-way and it remains like that. We have lost our savings, we hope at least we can save our father,” Lukman adds.