KENDRAPARA: Ashalata Ray of Kharinashi, a seaside village in Kendrapara district, has finally found closure to the decades of fear and uncertainty after the Central government on Monday notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. She will finally be called an Indian citizen and will not be deported.
Now 52-year-old, Ashalata’s parents and family had fled Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, in the aftermath of partition. They were among the hundreds of families who had sailed to the coastal district of Kendrapara through the years and taken refuge in the seaside villages. But they had been considered illegal immigrants and leading their lives in fear and apprehension all these time.
Like her, the spectre of deportation was haunting as many as 1,551 suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They were also served “Quit India” notice by the district administration under the Foreigners Act 1948 in 2005. Authorities had deleted their names from the voters’ list.
“The state government served ‘Quit India’ notices in 2005 on 1551 Hindu people including me. The Narendra Modi government has done the right thing by notifying the CAA to grant Indian nationality to people like us. Nobody will call us foreigner now,” said a visibly relieved and exuberant Ashalata.
There has been a celebratory atmosphere in several coastal villages inhabited by the Bangladeshi refugees since the announcement.
“Our grandfather came to the seaside village Hariabanka in 1948 from East Pakistan after the partition as a registered refugee,” said Ajit Haldar (64) of Kharinashi village under Mahakalapada block.
“But in 2005, the district administration had illegally served Quit India notices upon me and my family members, branding us as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. We are grateful to the Union government for passing the CAA and implementing it,” Haldar said.
In 2015, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik informed the state Assembly that 3,987 Bangladeshis were illegally staying in the state. The highest number of 1,649 infiltrators were staying in Kendrapara followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur district. Other districts where such infiltrators had been identified are 655 in Malkangiri, 313 in Bhadrak 150, in Balasore, 106 in Nabarangpur and two in Bargarh.
In 2005, the state government had issued “Quit India” notices to 1551 suspected Hindu Bangladeshis of the district under the provisions of the Foreigners Act. As a result, their fate was hanging in the balance, said Bijay Shukla, the vice-chairman of panchayat samiti of Mahakalapada.
After the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) became a law in 2020, the then Union Minister of Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste had visited the Bangladeshi Hindu refugees settled in the district and assured them Indian citizenship soon. Around 50,000 Bengali speaking people reside in the coastal pockets of Kendrapada district. Most of them came from East Pakistan in 1947 and many also came from the present Bangladesh in the 1970s.
Baidyanath Chatterjee, a senior BJP leader of the district said, “The Hindu refugees would be accorded citizenship under CAA. The Muslims who are living in India for the last several decades and have proper documents would not be affected. They will remain citizens of the country. Only those Muslims who have infiltrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan should be worried as they would be identified and thrown out of the country.”