Other Side of The Coin – What CAA Means for the Minorities of Bangladesh

Both CAA and NRC are the internal matter of India. Prime Minister Modi assured this to Prime Minister Hasina time and again and Hasina also expressed same comments when asked. Modi in his first visit to Bangladesh in 2015 as Prime Minister of India, not only won the minds of Bangladesh also touched the heart of Bangladeshi people at large. Sheikh Hasina also always acknowledges that the relationship between Bangladesh and India are at its peak compared to any time of the past.

According to CAA, The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 passed by the Parliament of India on 11th December 2019, members of religious minority Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian who had fled to India on or before 31st December 2014 for persecution from Muslim majority countries Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and stayed in India for more than five years, are eligible to apply for Indian Citizenship.

If we analyze the statistics and other data of this part of undivided India, the present Bangladesh, most wondering figure which escaped many of us is the number of religious minorities. In 1947 minority was 1.5 crores against majority 3 crores (total population 4.5 crores), in 1971 minority was 1.5 crores against 5 crores majority (total population 7.5 crores) and in 2020 also minority is 1.5 crores (as per recent interim report of bureau of statistics around 1.8 crores) against majority 15 crores (total population around 17 crores). In other words, minority population 1.5 crores is constant from 1947 to 2020 against majority population raised to 500% from 3 crores to 15 crores.

Now the million dollar question may be, how come when the same land’s minority growth is zero, majority is 500% ? Answer is very much an open secret. The unaccounted persecuted missing population fled to neighboring India. The other open secret? India is taking the pain for ages.

The irony of fate faced by the minorities, specially the Hindus of this part of undivided India present Bangladesh, is known to everyone. They were forced to leave their ancestral property and heritages not only in 1947 because of partition of India on the basis of religion, but even after emergence of secular and democratic Bangladesh in 1971. Most unfortunate reality is, after 1947 on the basis of Nehru Liaquat Pact 1950 (expired in 1956) refugees were allowed to migrate and exchange their property but after 1956 till date, exodus though a regular phenomenon, most victims were penniless when forced to leave their place of birth.

The census report endorses both the strategy and gravity of exodus. Minority population of the then East Pakistan, as per census report, was 23.1% in 1951, 19.6% in 1961 and in Bangladesh 14.6% in 1974, 13.3% in 1981, 11.7% in 1991, 10.3% in 2001 and according to latest census 9.6% in 2011. Very recent interim report of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics however disclosed that present minority population is around 11.6% ie increased by 2% during the decade of Sk Hasina.

Immediately after the CAA was passed on 11th December 2019, Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), the apex body of minority fighting for the equal rights and opportunities, in a press conference on13th December 2019 expressed their deep concern apprehending that this Act might inspire the minorities of Bangladesh to leave their motherland for a comparative secured life, particularly for their next generation. In addition the minority may also loose interest of participating in secular and democratic movements of this soil where they were always in the front line. BHBCUC also expressed their worries, this Act may tempt the anti liberation forces and the group who had been in the process of materialising the dream of killers of Bangabandhu ie u-turning Bangladesh to a Militant Monolithic Islamic State by thriving out the minorities through rape, torture, land grabbing, torching temples and homestead, forceful conversion and many others.

Considering the above stated scenario BHBCOP strongly advocates that both CAA and NRC, being absolutely India’s internal matter, should be handled and nourished in such a way that same doesn’t contribute uprooting the minorities, particularly the Hindus of this soil, when they are not only fighting back in every sectors of life to anchor their roots in the ancestral land of birth but also investing in industries, trade & commerce including holding senior positions in both govt. and private organizations.