CAA: Initial euphoria over, Matua leaders tell members to wait, not apply yet

QUITE like Assam’s Barak Valley where its Bengali-speaking Hindus who have migrated from Bangladesh are not rushing to register under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, in the Matua community in West Bengal, the initial euphoria over the implementation of the legislation has given way to apprehension.

Now, Matua community leaders have issued statements asking their members to wait till the elections are over, and the confusion over the papers to be submitted is sorted. BJP leaders have reached out to Delhi saying that a clause in the rules seeking proof of residence in neighbouring Bangladesh, Afghanistan or Pakistan be done away with. And many Matua families are making frantic calls to relatives back in Bangladesh in a desperate search for the papers they might need.

Having passed the CAA in 2019, the Narendra Modi government notified the rules only on March 11, days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule.

With the BJP hoping to cash in on the Matua vote in Bengal, which is among the high-priority states for the BJP, Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was among the first to caution the Matuas not to apply under the CAA. “I will be happy if anyone get citizenship, but the BJP is fooling people,” she said. “The moment one applies for citizenship, they will be identified as intruders. After this, the NRC (National Register of Citizens) will be implemented, and these people will be sent to detention camps.”

The message has hit home, among people who are used to promises drying up. “I came to India in February 2004 and my mother came two months later. Now I have been making frantic calls to Bangladesh, where her sisters live, to get documents proving that she once lived there. They do