People's Democracy

On the Issue of D-Voters in Assam

The 20th Congress of the CPI(M) notes with deep concern the continuing problem of D-voters in Assam which particularly affects people belonging to the religious and linguistic minorities. The names of some voters have been marked with word `D' (Doubtful) in electoral rolls and on the eve of every Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, some additional names are added to the list of D-voters. The D-voters are suspected to be foreigners entering and living illegally in the state of Assam.

The CPI(M), while demanding sealing of borders with Bangladesh, has constantly demanded the solution of the problem of suspected foreigners living illegally in Assam through the judicial process. But most of the Foreigners Tribunals set-up for identifying the illegal foreigners is non-functioning. On many occasions, exparte judgments have been pronounced against many genuine Indian citizens classifying them as foreigners, due to the flawed nature of the exercise. Recently two married women belonging to Koch-Rajbanshi community have been sent to detention camp.

Following the judgment of a single bench of Guwahati High Court on April 21, 2011 which directed all D-voters to be transferred to the Foreigners Tribunals and that these persons must be kept in the detention camps till their cases are disposed of, the situation worsened. This is against the principles of natural justice and violative of human rights. Even though there is a stay order, the state administration has been serving fresh notices to a large number of people belonging to the religious and linguistic minorities resulting in harassment of Bengali and Nepali speaking people. The 20th Congress demands that there should be no such detentions in the name of voters.

The 20th Congress reiterates the demand for the increase in the number of tribunals with adequate number of judges and infrastructure for early solution of the problem of D-voters. This Party Congress also demands early completion of updating of 1951 National Register of Citizens taking 1971 voters list as the basis and urges the central and state government to accept these demands and initiate appropriate action.