Assam: Ministry Of Home Affairs Grants First Citizenship To Hindu Bangladeshi

GUWAHATI: Dulan Das, hailing from Silchar, is the first Hindu Bangladeshi to attain Indian citizenship under the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act).

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed Das of the grant of his Indian citizenship under the CAA. The Union ministry asked Das to collect his Indian citizenship certificate from the office located in Guwahati.

Das and his family came to Silchar in 1988 from the Sylhet district in Bangladesh following religious persecution there. He bought land in Silchar in the early 2000s. He and his family members have voter cards, and they have been voting since 1996.

According to his lawyer Dharmananda Deb, Das applied for Indian citizenship under the CAA on April 1, 2024. Das submitted to the MHA his deed of land ownership in the Sylhet district of Bangladesh as evidence.

Advocate Deb informed the media at Silchar that six other applications under CAA from Assam were under the review of the MHA, and four of them have documents in favour of their plea for Indian citizenship.

Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, and AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya reacted sharply to the development.

Saikia said, "Giving Indian citizenship to a Bangladeshi has negated the very spirit of the Assam Accord signed after an agitation spanning six years."

Samujjal Bhattacharjya said, "We still stand by our stance in opposing the CAA. Our fight against this Act is going on before the Supreme Court of India."

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the people who agitated against the CAA by saying that lakhs of Bangladeshis would get Indian citizenship from Assam should be ashamed of the fact that only one Bangladeshi got Indian citizenship in the state. "They should be answerable for the five lives lost during the anti-CAA agitation in the state," he said.

Meanwhile, AJP general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan said, "How many Bangladeshis got Indian citizenship doesn't matter. What matters is that the process for Bangaldeshis getting Indian citizenship has begun."

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