Kolkata, 05 January (H.S.) :

Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Monday accused the state government of deliberately misleading the Matua community and Hindu refugees over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), launching a sharp attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Addressing a press conference at the BJP’s Salt Lake office, he said the Matua community had long been treated as a vote bank for political interests.

Adhikari said that following the Partition of 1947, a large number of Hindu refugees migrated to West Bengal from erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, with the Matua community forming a significant section among them. He said the community had struggled for decades to secure citizenship rights, but successive Congress and Left Front governments merely made promises without delivering concrete results.

Referring to the role of Thakur Harichand and Thakur Guruchand, Adhikari said the Matua movement had been organised to assert the community’s rights. He claimed that the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to grant citizenship to eligible refugees through the CAA had now been fulfilled.

The Leader of the Opposition alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had consistently spread misinformation about the CAA by linking it with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and detention camps, thereby creating fear among people. He said such narratives led to violence in different parts of the state in and after 2019, resulting in damage to public property and inconvenience to ordinary citizens. Adhikari asserted that the implementation of the CAA had now made it clear that the law had no connection with the NRC or detention camps.

He further claimed that in several states, applicants had already received citizenship certificates, and that thousands of applications had been submitted in West Bengal as well, with citizenship being granted to many eligible applicants. According to Adhikari, attempts to revive fears around the NRC intensify whenever elections approach, with the aim of confusing the Matua community and Hindu refugees.

Adhikari also accused certain political forces of interfering in the internal affairs of Thakurbari to weaken the Matua community. Highlighting the role of Prime Minister Modi, he said that for the first time since Independence, an Indian Prime Minister had visited Orakandi, the birthplace of the Matua movement, to pay homage and take concrete steps for the protection of refugees.

The BJP leader further alleged that Hindu refugees who recently took shelter in West Bengal following reports of persecution in Bangladesh were harassed by the state police. He said the central government had clearly directed that Bangladeshi Hindu refugees who entered India up to December 31, 2024, to save their lives and religious identity, cannot be harassed or forcibly deported by any state police.

Adhikari said that by implementing the CAA and ensuring protection for refugees, the Modi government had fulfilled its humanitarian responsibility. He added that the BJP strongly condemns any political attempt to mislead the Matua community and Hindu refugees, and would continue to stand firmly for the rights and security of the Sanatan Hindu community and refugees.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh