NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping that the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, felicitation of the Indian National Army on the occasion of Republic Day and the conferring of Bharat Ratna to former President Pranab Mukherjee, will help it gain rich political dividends in West Bengal.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 has brought about much cheer to the Matua community of Bengal in particular. The community comprises 17.74% of Bengal’s population and is concentrated mostly in the North 24 Parganas district of the state. The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, which has been passed by the Lok Sabha and is pending with the Upper House of Parliament, talks about giving citizenship to all Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis who have migrated to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as refugees.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally of the Matua community in Thakurnagar (Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency), the bastion of the community in Bengal. The rally was organised by the Matua community as a vote of thanks for the 2016 Bill. The Matua community constitutes around 50% of the population in that particular constituency and can swing votes in favour of the political party it chooses to support.
Shantanu Thakur, president of the All India Matua Mahasabha, told The Sunday Guardian, “We are very thankful to the Prime Minister for accepting our invitation and coming to address the large gathering of people from our community. The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 comes as a big relief for thousands of people from this community as they are mostly migrants from Bangladesh.”
The Matuas, who are Hindus, are primarily a community of Scheduled Caste who had come to India from the erstwhile East Pakistan, during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. They settled in the border districts of North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas. Most of them engage in menial work and daily labour. Since the community is not well off either economically or educationally, most of them do not have documentary proof of their Indian citizenship.
According to BJP leaders, the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 is going to play a major role in Assam, Tripura and other Northeast states as well and will work in favour of the BJP.
A senior BJP leader said, “NRC (National Registrar of Citizens) is already a big issue in Assam and with this bill, a lot of people belonging to the Hindu migrant community, who were earlier uncertain about their future, are now happy that they will not lose their citizenship status. Assam and Tripura have a huge migrant Bengali population from neighbouring Bangladesh and is definitely going to bring some positivity for the BJP in these states.”
Also, the conferring of the Bharat Ratna to the first Bengali President Pranab Mukherjee and the felicitation of soldiers from the Indian National Army, are believed to have gone down well among Bengalis.
Several intellectuals and ordinary Bengalis that this correspondent spoke to in Bengal said that this move by the government was definitely going to benefit the BJP in West Bengal, where the party has already made deep inroads.
Ritika Saha, a Bengali literature student from Calcutta University, said that the BJP had struck a chord with Bengali sentiments and this was what Bengalis were looking for.
“By making these gestures, the BJP, which was earlier considered as a party from the Hindi heartland, is slowly seeping into the minds of Bengalis. They have now started to feel that the BJP resonates with the traditions and culture of Bengalis. And Bengalis are very close to their culture. The invoking of Subhas Chandra Bose repeatedly by the Prime Minister has led to a feeling of pride among Bengalis,” Saha said.
The BJP leadership in Bengal also feels confident about the deep impact these gestures will have in the minds of Bengalis and how it could pay dividends to the party.
A BJP functionary from Kolkata told this correspondent, “People in Bengal are in favour of the BJP. They are tired of the Mamata Banerjee government’s misrule. These two factors would be an added benefit for the party. The party will repeatedly remind Bengalis that we are not outsiders and we understand and recognise Bengali culture and ethos. We will highlight how the Prime Minister names islands after SubhashBabu and about how he declassified the Netaji files, among others things.”