Assam to withdraw FT cases against Gorkhas

Gorkha Image Courtesy:indiatoday.in

In a significant move that has been assailed for being overtly discriminatory, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced that the state Cabinet had decided not to prosecute any Gorkha citizen under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Moreover, all cases against Gorkhas pending before Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) would be withdrawn.

On August 4, Sarma tweeted saying that “Assam cabinet took a decision today not prosecute (sic) any Gorkha citizen under the Citizenship Amendment Act 1955 and also to withdraw all pending prosecution relating to Gorkhas from foreigners tribunals.” The Cabinet also decided not to register any new FT cases against Gorkhas

This is a significant development given how over 85,000 Gorkhas had been excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) published in August 2019. SabrangIndia had previously reported on how Sarma was attempting to placate the nearly 25 lakh Gorkhas in his state with sops such as declaring them a protected class in different areas such as the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and the Sadiya tribal belt of Upper Assam. While this would have enabled them to buy and sell property, it wasn’t enough to address anxiety related to citizenship issues.

In an exclusive analysis dated September 19, 2019, Sabrangindia had exposed how in the 1.9 million (19 lakhs persons excluded from the final list of the NRC released on August 31 that year, apart from Gorkhas, the exclusion of 7 lakh Hindus exposed completely the hysterical cries of the ‘Bangladeshi bogeyman. This report based on sources from the Intelligence Branch of the Assam government, revealed how among the excluded were 6.90 Lakh Bengali Hindus, 4.86 Lakhs Muslims of East Bengal origin, 60,000 Assamese Hindusm , 58,000 Koch Rajbonshis, 35,000 persons belonging to the Goria Moria Deshi community, 20,000 Bodos, 9,000 Karbis among others. With this much publicised decision of the Assam government that seeks to give reliefs to the 85,000 members of the Gorkha community among the NRC excluded, as well as those among them who may be facing D Voter or Declared Foreigner cases in Assam’s infamous FTs, clearly the government is spearheading a carrot and stock or ‘divide and rule’ policy.

Gorkhas are Nepali speaking Indians. There is great diversity even within the community and each sub-group has its own language from either the Tibeto-Burman or Indo-Aryan language families. The Gorkha community is known for their valour and excellence in the battlefield, traits that led to the creation of the Gorkha Regiment by the British back in 1815. The regiment later became a part of the army of independent India and today there are 39 battalions serving under 7 Gorkha regiments in the Indian Army.

Gorkhas had, therefore, been shocked and even insulted when asked to defend their citizenship before FTs after exclusion from the NRC. Earlier, in September 2019, shortly after the final NRC was published Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha (BGP) president Sukhman Moktan had said at that time, “The NRC guidelines say the Gorkhas whose citizenship has been challenged need to go to the Foreigners’ Tribunals despite a notification of exemption by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). This is an attempt of a few vested interests within the system to disrespect Indian Gorkhas who are actually original inhabitants as is proved by our historically and mythologically recorded presence since centuries.” The BGP estimates that out of the 25 lakh Gorkhas residing in Assam over 22,000 people have also been arbitrarily marked D Voter, thus disenfranchising them. He had reiterated, “The Gorkhas of Assam will not go to the Foreigners’ Tribunals to prove their citizenship, as being tried in such tribunals is an insult to their identity as Indians. We can file defamation cases against the system of challenging the citizenship of Gorkhas and Nepali-speaking people.”

While the move to protect Gorkhas from FT cases and prosecution under CAA is undeniably a good move, it does lead to questions about why such an exemption was granted to one group of people and not everyone else. An overwhelming majority of people excluded from the NRC are Bengali speaking people hailing from both, Hindu and Muslim communities. These people have been accused of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and infiltrators. More than anything else, Assam’s questionable processes afoot to arbitrarily exclude those from Indian citizenship without following rigorous laid down procedures under the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), laid down legal and judicial directives or constitutional provisions have impacted the entire process negatively.

According to the Sabrangindia analysis (2019) the others among the 19 lakh NRC excluded include:
Rabha 8,000, Hajong 8,000, Mishing 7,000, Ahom 3,000, Garo 2,500, Matak 1,500, Dimasa 1,100
Sonowal Kachari 1,000 and Maran 900. Then a smaller number of 200 Bishnupriya Manipuris, 125 Nagas, 75 Hmars, 85 Kukis, 50 Thadous and 8 Baites are among those who find themselves excluded.