TMC's decision to not allow NRC puts BJP in tough spot, party faces task of balancing between Assamese, Bengali victimhoods

Even as the Trinamool Congress Party trains its guns against the BJP on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue, the saffron party is faced with the daunting task of balancing between the sense of victimhood among the Assamese and the Bengalis. The TMC-led West Bengal government’s decision to not allow an NRC-like exercise in West Bengal rises from the scare caused by the Assam NRC. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the TMC government in the state will not allow the implementation of NRC in the state. [caption id=“attachment_6240981” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP chief Amit Shah. Reuters[/caption] “This (NRC implementation) is nothing but an attempt to divert the attention of the people from the ongoing economic crisis in the country,” she said. The West Bengal government’s announcement has come at a time the Centre is planning to revive the National Population Register (NPR) programme. “If more than a million Bengalis can be left out of the Assam NRC than the same can happen with them anywhere else. Massive awareness has been created in West Bengal against any such exercise," says Chandan Chatterjee, national president of All Bengali Students and Youth Organisation in a protest programme against Assam NRC held in Jantar Mantar on Thursday. In the protest meet, Bengali organisations from across North East and many from other parts of India participated and demanded the scrapping of the NRC and also detention centres in Assam where people failing to prove their citizenship are being kept. According to Chatterjee, out of the total 19 lakhs left out of the NRC in Assam, more than 12 lakhs are Bengali Hindus. It is being alleged that wrongful exclusion may have tainted the NRC updation process in Assam. “We have been targeted only because we are Bengalis. Why else do you think even Bengali pensioners with pension documents dated back to the early sixties have been left out of the NRC,” says Shantanu Mukharjee, general secretary of Sadau Asom Bangali Oikyo Mancha, who was also present at the protest. Leaders of the organisations present at the protest meeting at Jantar Mantar expressed fear that the number of Bengalis failing to make it to the citizenship list across India would grow manifold if an NRC-like exercise is carried across the nation. The Centre’s decision to revive the NPR programme, which is not necessarily a process similar to the NRC updation in Assam, is seen with much apprehension by many Bengalis. The Office of the Registrar General of India defines the NPR as a register of usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more. On the other hand, the NRC is a document containing names of genuine Indian citizens. At present only Assam has such a list. Once bitten, twice shy, Bengalis are even wary of the idea of the NPR. “The NPR seems to be the first step towards preparing an NRC. We are happy that the West Bengal government is passing a resolution against it,” said Mukul Chandra Bairagya, leader of All India Namoshudra Bikash Parishad. The NRC seems to have deep political implications in Assam where the BJP is in power and also in West Bengal where the saffron party hopes to be in power. “After the release of the Assam NRC, the TMC is 10 steps ahead of the BJP in West Bengal. The NRC exposed the hypocrisy of the BJP, which earlier promised Indian citizenship to the Hindus who migrated from Bangladesh, but now the Hindus are also told to prove their citizenship,” fumes Chatterjee. Explaining how the NRC issue has picked up momentum in West Bengal, he added that till a year ago very few organisations showed interest in the issue but now many organisations have taken it up. “The Trinamool Congress certainly leads the bandwagon against NRC,” he said. Reema Mukherjee, an activist who leads a newly formed apolitical organisation named Banglapokhyo in West Bengal advocates Bengali unity. “The NRC issue has shown us that all Bengalis of all caste, creed and religion from across the globe are needed to unite against the NRC exercise,” she said. [caption id=“attachment_7260921” align=“alignright” width=“380”] People stand in a queue to check their names on the final NRC list at Morigoan, Assam. PTI[/caption] The NRC issue certainly gives the Trinamool Congress Party, which had a hard time in retaining its Hindu vote bank in the last Lok Sabha polls, fresh ammo against the BJP. The party’s move to hold a mega protest rally against NRC is a move targeted at playing upon the sense of victimhood of the Bengalis. What is interesting is that the sense of victimhood is not exclusive to the Bengalis only. The Assamese too have very old disgruntlement about the influx of population from Bangladesh and also the indifference of the earlier governments on their demand to identify and deport illegal immigrants. According to the All Assam Students Union (AASU), the influx from Bangladesh has led to wide-scale encroachment of land, erosion of political rights of the aborigins and dilution of Assamese culture. Dipankar Nath, president of AASU, “We should not forget the difference between the definitions of victim and perpetrator. How can persons who encroach upon someone else’s property, grab someone else’s job opportunity, make an aboriginal society minority in its own land and thus grab their political rights, be victims?” He also added that there is a conspiracy to blur the difference between Indian Bengalis and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. “Indian Bengalis are living in Assam and will continue to do so. The NRC is only about who came to India illegally and settled here,” he added. The BJP now has the task of striking a balance between the mutual victimhood of both the communities. Siding with the people whose name did not appear in the NRC might cost the BJP heavily in Assam. No wonder then that, despite an invitation from the protesting organisations, none of the BJP leaders appeared in the protest at Jantar Mantar. On the other hand, siding with the Assamese sub-nationalists might result in the closing of doors for the BJP in West Bengal. It would be interesting to see how the saffron party balances between the victimhood of the Assamese and Bengalis while keeping its electoral ambitions intact.