As speculation over fresh applications for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and its newly framed Rules dominate the political discourse in West Bengal, Khalilur Rehman (74) said that he does not fear CAA or the National Register of Citizens (NRC), unlike many Muslims of the State.
“We have no fear of the NRC. We have come through a bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh. How can they force us back again?” Mr. Rehman, resident of an enclave rehabilitation centre at Dinhata in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, said.
A total of 58 families were given accommodation in an apartment block near an agricultural market in 2021, after living in camps for almost six years, following the historic exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh on July 30, 2015.
In Dinhata, the settlement, housed in a large compound of two storied blocks, has not seen much political activity in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Flags of the Trinamool Congress have been put at a few places in the settlement complex, but leaders from major political parties have not come here to campaign.
Mr. Rehman, his wife and three children, came to India in November 2015 from Dashiarchara, a former Indian enclave situated in Kurigram district of Bangladesh. “We thought we were going to a bigger country. India is a bigger country and we felt that there will be more facilities there,” Mr. Rehman said.
The family has preserved various documents, including temporary travel cum identity cards issued in pursuance of the exchange of enclaves, as provided in the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement, and local newspaper cuttings, some with reports that those migrating from Bangladesh would get land in India and cash incentives of ₹5 lakh for each family. In his two-room apartment, E-2, Mr. Rehman’s wife Aklima Begum said that there was no drinking water supply, and the authorities had not provided any documents for the apartment.
The exchange of enclaves came into effect from the midnight of July 31, 2015, when 111 Indian enclaves in four districts of Bangladesh became part of Bangladesh territory, and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district merged with India.
There was a population of about 34,000 people in the 111 enclaves, and when the option of moving to India was provided, 922 people registered their names and came to India. These people are now living in three settlements at Cooch Behar — at Dinhata, Haldibari, and Mekhliganj.
Before moving into the apartment at Dinhata, the 58 families were housed in a makeshift camp at a distance of about 500 metres from their present habitation. The administration was providing free ration to these families, which has stopped since they moved into permanent habitation.
While the apartments were allotted after a lottery, there is a separation in Hindu and Muslim households —Muslim families are located to the left while Hindus are on the right. The majority of apartments on the Muslim side are closed, and neighbours say the families have migrated to work in other cities.
Ranjit Barman (30), who lives in the apartment J-3, works in the nearby plywood factory. He rues that he has no ownership papers for his apartment. “When political parties come to us for votes, we will ask to ensure the ownership of the apartment. We have been asked to move here, but have no ownership documents. We cannot go to Bangladesh, from where we came, without a passport,” Mr. Barman said.
The families also complain that the plaster on the walls is peeling off and they don’t have the resources to maintain the apartment with tiles. The residents are rearing goats and chickens in the compound, and gourd and pumpkin creepers have come up at several places. One of the concerns voiced by these families, who come from largely agricultural backgrounds, is that they cannot stay in apartments and should be given land.
Most of the families say they had land in the erstwhile Indian enclave in Bangladesh, which they could not sell before they moved to India. “We thought we would get land in exchange for the land we could not sell in the old Indian enclave. But we have not got anything. Sometimes we wonder whether we should come to India at all,” the youth said.
Mr. Barman’s neighbour Laboni Roy echoed a similar sentiment. “Several elections have gone by. We voted for the Parliament elections in 2019, the Assembly elections in the 2016 and 2021, and two panchayat elections of 2018 and 2023, yet the issues we have been facing from the start have remained,” Ms. Roy said.
“Whatever we were promised, we did not get. We should have stayed in Bangladesh rather than coming here and starting life afresh,” she said. Her husband, Shyamal Roy, works in a local factory.
Mr. Barman and Ms, Roy are unable to make much sense of the CAA and its newly notified Rules. “What does the CAA have to do with us? We waited seven decades for citizenship before we got it in 2015,” both said.
Not only are those who came to India from the erstwhile Indian enclaves a little disillusioned with their new-found citizenship, but so are those from the erstwhile Bangladeshi enclaves, who decided not to return to Bangladesh.
Poatarkuthi, an erstwhile Bangladesh enclave, became part of India in 2015. Mansur Ali, one of Poatarkuthi’s senior-most citizens says that issues relating to land records are yet to be resolved. “Not all issues have been resolved. I have six sons and I have not been keeping well,” Mr Ali said.
All the 51 erstwhile Bangladesh enclaves that became part of India are located in Cooch Behar, which is going to vote on April 19. The BJP’s Nisith Pramanik is pitted against Trinamool Congress candidate Jagadish Chandra Basunia. Other key candidates include Nitish Chandra Roy of the All India Forward Bloc, and Piya Roy Chowdhury of the Congress.
