How BJP, Trinamool are seeking political gain from NRC issue in Bengal

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are seeking to make political gains from the issue of the proposed introduction of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal and the effort to secure a parliamentary nod to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, fear of which allegedly has claimed 11 lives in the state so far. 

While BJP leaders are insisting on finding infiltrators and driving them out of the country — a move they claim would help restore West Bengal to the hands of its original Bengali bhadraloks and inhabitants — the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is looking to cash in on the issue to propel itself as the main opposition to the BJP at the national level. 

“The Congress is weak and in the defensive mode; it is the TMC that opposed the BJP on the NRC and other national issues. The TMC will use the issue of the NRC to project itself as the most effective opposition party at the national level,” said political commentator Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chaudhury. He argued that the NRC issue would polarise the state on religious lines, which the BJP wants.

BJP leaders believe that if the NRC helps them attract at least 60 per cent of the state’s Hindu voters, the party should see major seat gains in the 2021 Assembly polls. Then the party will either come to power in the state or emerge as the primary opposition, replacing the Congress.

“I assure all Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, and Christian refugees, they won't have to leave the country. They will get Indian citizenship and enjoy all the rights of an Indian national,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently.

BJP leaders, in their NRC campaign, are skipping any reference to the state’s significant Muslim population or giving the community a similar assurance. There are about 22 million Muslims in West Bengal, according to official records, and they make up over 24 per cent of the population. Also, granting Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, and Christian refugees Indian citizenship will first entail a parliamentary nod to the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Political observers like Basu Roy Chaudhury point out the fear of the NRC has not only gripped a large section of Muslims, who at some point in time crossed over to India, but also a large number of Hindu immigrants. 

There has been a sudden surge in applications and inquiries from people, particularly from the minority community, at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to obtain birth and death certificates or get some facts corrected. Hindus , too, are increasingly trying to dig up land records and other documents, which could show they lived in West Bengal before March 26, 1971 — the cut-off date for the NRC.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged that the NRC was somehow linked to the death of at least 11 people in the state. She promised her government would not allow the NRC to be enforced in the state and asked people not to worry. TMC leaders say the state government’s nod is a must to enforce the NRC. They believe the issue of the NRC could be a blessing in disguise for them.

After the TMC suffered heavy losses at the hands of the BJP in this year's Lok Sabha election, the party embarked on a campaign of outreach, with Banerjee asking senior party leaders to restore grassroots contact with people. “Nobody likes chaos and disorder, and the fear of the NRC is giving sleepless nights to people. While we’re not going to allow the implementation of the NRC in West Bengal, this disgust of people with the BJP will help us regain lost ground,” said a TMC leader.

People have begun to return to the TMC fold in Alipurduar, where the BJP swept the Lok Sabha polls, in fear of documentation. Many people secretly acknowledged that in the Lok Sabha polls they voted the BJP, but they were now concerned about the NRC and decided to go back to the TMC fold. One such person, who did not wish to be identified, said: “My family voted in favour of the BJP, hoping things would get better. But the party is pushing unnecessary agendas and this creates unnecessary trouble for us.”

But, the BJP’s West Bengal President Dilip Ghosh claimed the TMC was causing confusion by misinterpreting the NRC, and no citizen should be afraid, except for illegal immigrants and the Rohingyas.