Sporting colourful dresses, members of the Matua community, that migrated to India, first during the Partition and then after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, played drums and distributed sweets. In Kolkata, people and Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha members put up diyas at Ahiritola Ghat on the banks of the Hooghly river and painted the ghat’s steps to mark the occasion.
Union Minister of State for Shipping, Ports and Waterways and All-India Matua Mahasangha head Shantanu Thakur said it is an “independence day for refugee communities living in the country”.
Most of the 3 crore Matuas in West Bengal live in the state’s North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts. “The life of future generations of people belonging to refugee communities have been secured today. It is a historical day for refugees in the country. This is like an independence day for them. Today their ordeal has come to an end. They can no longer be branded as refugees as the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought in CAA which grants citizenship to these people. The effects of this will be felt in the Lok Sabha polls,” said Thakur during a press conference at the BJP office in Kolkata.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the government at the Centre always delivered on its promises. “The Union Home Minister has said that CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha polls. Today, it has been done. Members of refugee communities are happy today. The CAA aims to grant citizenship and does not take away anyone’s. Therefore, no one needs to lose their sleep over the issue,” said Majumdar.
The Trinamool Congress, however, criticised the Centre for notifying the Act before the Lok Sabha polls. “We are already citizens of this country. We have Aadhaar and voter cards. We were elected as public representatives being citizens. Besides, a large number of people have lost their documents over the years. How would they prove their citizenship?” said Mamata Bala Thakur, TMC Rajya Sabha MP and member of the All-India Matua Mahasangha.
Due to the circumstances under which the Matuas, who belong to the scheduled caste Namasudras, migrated to India, many never formally received Indian citizenship, making this a long-standing demand of the community. In 2021, the BJP promised to implement their demand for Indian citizenship if it won the Assembly elections.
The CAA has been in limbo as the Centre is yet to frame its rules amid the Opposition’s strong stand against the law. Soon after Parliament passed the law in 2019, widespread protests broke out in the country. The CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.