Union Minister Shantanu Thakur to Apply for Citizenship Under CAA to Counter ‘Misinformation’ by TMC

To dispel alleged misinformation on the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, which came into force earlier this month, Union Minister Shantanu Thakur has declared he will seek citizenship himself in a symbolic gesture.

Shantanu Thakur is the grandson of Pramatha Ranjan Thakur, a prominent member of the Matua community who came to India after partition. He is BJP MP from Bongaon, an area with the majority of people belonging to the Matua community in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.

The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.

Thakur, Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said he plans to apply for citizenship under CAA himself to counter “widespread misinformation” spread by the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

“The TMC is trying to create a misleading campaign that people applying for CAA (citizenship) will lose everything. This is not right. The Indian government has said that if someone has Bangladeshi papers, even that will do. The government only wants to check that the person applying is not affiliated to any terror outfits. I myself will apply for citizenship though I don’t require it. I will still do it to prove to people that nothing will happen.”

The BJP has also accused West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee of deterring citizenship applicants with claims that they will be dispossessed of their properties.

Matuas, who constitute a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to West Bengal since the 1950s, primarily due to religious persecution in erstwhile East Pakistan which later became Bangladesh.

Since the 1990s, political parties in West Bengal have actively sought to secure the support of the Matuas, who, due to their significant population and tendency to vote together, are considered a valuable voting bloc.

The Matua community is believed to benefit the most from the implementation of the CAA.

In Thakurnagar, several members of the community have been coming to register themselves with the Matua Mahasangha. Many of them have no documents and have been enquiring about applying for citizenship without papers.

Party sources say the many among the 1-crore strong Matua community may follow Thakur’s example and apply for citizenship under CAA.