Dr. Ramesh Thakur Senior Journalist
Pakistanis who came to India 56 years ago have been given citizenship. That too not to just a few people, but to thousands. Last month, the government organized a colorful program and distributed citizenship certificates to the displaced Pakistanis by playing drums. It is also surprising that the government did such a miracle in such an environment when a campaign was launched at the central and state levels to drive out infiltrators from different countries across India. We also saw the hallmarks of this campaign during the recently concluded assembly elections of five states. When the elections of two border states, Assam and West Bengal, revolved around this issue. Apart from infiltrators, there is also noise about NRC and CAA in India for some years. Despite this, the government took a big risk in giving citizenship to Pakistanis.
Why did the government take this step? This decision has many political implications, the picture of which will also be visible in the coming days. The government has given citizenship to the displaced people in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state of India. The name of the district is Pilibhit, which is adjacent to the Nepal border, which is famous for flute manufacturing as well as Terai region. The families the government has decided to settle include Bengali Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.
If we look at the map of India, Pilibhit is situated in an isolated corner of India, where displaced people from Pakistan had settled more than five decades ago. Since then, he has been seeking citizenship from various governments. According to government documents, some families from East Pakistan came to India between 1959 and 1971 after suffering from Pakistan. Initially this family kept wandering in many states and could not find a place anywhere. Ultimately he later found this district suitable for him. Apart from Pilibhit, some citizenship has also been given to the displaced people settled in Rampur and Bijnor.
The area of Pilibhit where this family lived was once deserted. These people made it habitable and prepared it for farming by working hard on the rough terrain. Today good crops grow in this area. Everyone already has Indian Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Ration Card etc. as paper documents. Besides, they have also been voting for a long time, but were deprived of citizenship and ownership rights, which was completed by the present Yogi government. They gave false assurances in every election. The previous Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party governments also assured them of getting citizenship. But due to some political obstacles, the promise could not be fulfilled.
A promise was made to them in the last 2022 assembly elections, which has now been fulfilled. On the initiative of the state government, all the victim families have been listed and proof of citizenship and ownership has been distributed. Citizenship has been given to about 2500 families, whose total number is around 15 thousand. By doing this the government has probably handed over a big political issue to the opposition parties. These people came to India from East Bangladesh, which is now part of East Pakistan, due to religious persecution between 1960 and 1975 and settled in Pilibhit, Terai district of Uttar Pradesh. Last month, on June 29, Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath visited the district, in which the Chief Minister not only distributed citizenship certificates to them, but also gave them government papers of ownership rights.
This decision was taken at the last moment of elections. Assembly elections are to be held in the state after just 6-7 months. Therefore, the politics of the state has heated up due to this decision of the government. Opposition parties have directly accused the present government of trying to reach a big vote bank. This is the first phase of settling the Pakistani migrants, the second phase is still pending. There are 35 thousand more people, who are settled in districts like Bahraich, Barabanki, Gonda, Lakhimpur, Bijnor. Everyone has been identified and it has been decided to give them full citizenship in the next few months.
According to government figures, there is a total population of 55 thousand displaced Pakistanis in about seven-eight districts of the state. These are also increasing rapidly every year. 56 years ago only 12 thousand 380 people had come here as a result of religious persecution. Their motive behind increasing the population was that with the increased population they would be able to put pressure on any party by luring the governments into voting. More or less, the same thing happened. These people have been successful in their plans today. (These are the personal views of the author.)