Trinamool Congress MP Mamata Thakur, the party’s Matua face, denounced the Citizenship Amendment Act during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, calling the process of seeking citizenship under the law “degrading” and “dehumanising”. Evoking the national unity seen at the ongoing Olympics, she denounced attempts to divide citizens or impose conditions on their citizenship.
The Matua sect that Ms. Thakur belongs to was founded in what is now Bangladesh, and lakhs of its members have migrated to India for decades. Many of their descendents are now being pushed to apply for formal citizenship under the CAA.
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The TMC has been rallying against the CAA, saying that the law’s Rules require people who have been living in India for decades to renounce their Indian citizenship in order to apply afresh. The BJP, however, has been campaigning that the law allows groups like Matuas to formalise their citizenship. There has been a tepid response to its campaign, with very few applicants so far seeking Indian citizenship under the law in West Bengal.
‘Unconditional citizenship’
Speaking in Bangla during the Zero Hour, Ms. Thakur said that 117 Indian athletes have gone for the Paris Olympics, and no one has raised any questions about the caste, language, or religion of these athletes. They are playing for the country and the whole nation is supporting them, she said.
“Attempting to divide our citizens on grounds of religion, language, sub-national identity, caste is never right. Compelling any citizen to show their identity records on these grounds or any other factors is uncalled for. No citizen should be served with conditions in order to pursue a life of peace in this country. We stand for natural, unconditional citizenship. We are against making citizens show any unnatural paper for that,” Ms. Thakur said.
‘Immensely dehumanising’
A person who has valid identification to enable them to cast their vote should not be forced to furnish documents over and over again, she argued. “Making them renounce citizenship in order to apply for citizenship all over again is degrading. Adding conditions in the name of giving citizenship, forcing them to submit ancestral documents, and refusing citizenship if they fail to do so, and sending them to detention camps is immensely dehumanising,” Ms. Thakur said.
The treasury benches erupted into an uproar of protests at her remarks but she continued speaking through the din. “If you want to give any identity card to the citizens of the country, it should be given without any conditions. By making them submit papers, fill up forms and coercing them to furnish false information — I condemn this game which has been started,” Ms. Thakur added.
Ms. Thakur is the aunt of Union Minister and BJP MP Shantanu Thakur; both of them come from a family of founders of the Matua order. The sect, comprising Namashudras or Dalits, was set up by Harichand Thakur at Orakandi, in what is now Bangladesh, in the mid-19th century, to question the practices of Brahminical Hinduism. Lakhs of Matuas have migrated to India both before and after the 1971 war that liberated what was then East Pakistan from West Pakistan, laying the foundation of Bangladesh.
