Will submit policy document soon to Supreme Court

The BJP-led NDA government is set to move forward on the question of granting citizenship to Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh and is expected to submit a policy document to the Supreme Court soon.

The document, being formulated by the Home Ministry, will decide the fate of thousands of Bangladeshi Hindus living in 18 States.

The Centre is expected to submit the document in response to a case filed in 2012 by two NGOs, Swajan and Bimalangshu Roy Foundation, which pleaded that Hindus and persons of other minorities from Bangladesh migrating to India to escape religious persecution must not be bracketed with illegal migrants and sent back.

According to the Assam Accord, all persons who crossed over from Bangladesh after 1971 are to be deported.

Refugee status

The petitions demanded grant of refugee status to these persons, which could later be converted to citizenship. It was made clear that the focus of the case was on Assam where animosity towards refugees from Bangladesh is a strong political issue.

However, in July 2013, the Supreme Court made the case into a national issue — the Bench hearing the case made 18 States a party to it, observing that the problem of religious minorities coming from Bangladesh to India was not confined to Assam alone. The UPA government was careful to go slow on the case since it involved the question of granting rights on the basis of religion. The files show that since 2012, the government had not filed any official response to the petition and had not even sent a lawyer to attend the hearings.

Since the NDA came to power in May last year, it has proactively followed the case and, in the words of one of the lawyers involved, made emphatic assurances that it would resolve the matter.

The previous UPA government went slow on the case as it involved the question of granting rights on the basis of religion