In Jirighat, in Cachar district in Assam, a tale of a man, more than 50 years old throws light on the hideous pain and plight inflicted on the population, by the idea of NRC peddled by pseudo-nationalists in the saffron camp. The man in Jirighat who is in his early 50s was the only one in his family to be named in the blacklist of the NRC. By an order of one of the 200 Foreigners’ tribunals, he was sent to a detention camp. At present, after his ordeal through the days in the detention camp, he is suffering from mental illness and cannot recognize any of his family members. The words like detention camp, rejection list, D-voter (dubious voter) reverberate in his ears and hound his mind.

Cachar is one of the three districts in the Barak valley, Assam; the other two being Karimganj & Hailakandi. A prominent portion of the population in Barak valley is Bengali-speaking. Silchar in Cachar district had been witness to bloodshed in the Language movement fought for the Bengali language. The illusion, that the movement had erased the lines between Assam and Bengal was kept alive because of the banners, hoardings, and posters in the region, which are mostly in Bengali. But, the Bengali residents of the valley, who have been through shit-storm triggered by the NRC imbroglio have been snapped out of the illusion.

The demographic distribution of Cachar district is worthwhile to notice. As per 2019 data, Cachar was 59.83% Hindu, 37.71% Muslims, with the headquarters of Cachar district-Silchar having 86.31% Hindus & 12.17% Muslims. Most of the Bengalis in the Barak valley are Muslims & the Hindu population is around equally split between Bengalis & non-Bengalis. This means that the NRC brought down hell upon the target electorate of BJP. The various district jails are now doubling up as detention camps. Now is the season of election in Assam, where the saffron-camp leaders are pleading or rather begging for votes. The local population is under the fear that as soon as the election is over, they will be hounded under the chaotic outlines of the NRC.

Inside the Silchar central jail, a detention camp is being built, where more than 100 prisoners have been imprisoned. One of the officials in that jail, whose family came to Silchar from Sinthi in North Kolkata, recollected how his family evaded from landing in detention camp. In such detention camps, a lion-share of the prisoners is composed of Bengalis & Hindus.

After the election season gets over and the saffron-camp is done preaching and pleading for votes, many more can be hounded and confined into these camps, and many of them would possibly go through the trauma like the 50+ years old person from Jirighat.

The idea behind the NRC of Assam, based on which the Detention centres have been put up, is insanely simple. Its only agenda is to fuel the political & identity-based divisions. Criminals and rapists with enough money-muscle can get into parliament if they are able to get just enough votes under the first-past-the-post system and enjoy innumerable benefits including pensions, but the voters who elect them need to dig up decades-old documents, which may not be even with them presently, to prove that they are Indian. That is the idea of NRC, in simpler words!

Having a voter-identity card does not suffice to be called a citizen for the common people while having criminal records does not prohibit a maniac from joining the parliament. The agenda & the rationale behind bringing in the NRC (in Assam) is clear, the parties like BJP need the votes, which will empower them to question the citizenship of the voters.

Some beasts do bite the hands that nourish them!