Cachar's 104-year-old Chandradhar Das who wanted to die as Indian, passed away before proving his citizenship

In a world of make-believe reality is often at times disappointing. More disappointing so is when you couldn’t prove yourself to be an Indian before you die. Your death becomes a lesion in the minds of your closed ones, they start feeling guilt-ridden.

We are talking about Chandradhar Das, the 104-year detention camp survivor who died yesterday at his Amraghat house before being able to prove his citizenship. A die-hard fan of PM Modi, maybe he unable to tell his miserable fate. He remained a “Bangladeshi” in the eyes of the Indian state, in the eyes of the lawmakers, and also in the eyes of political leaders who trade dreams among people like Das for fetching votes before elections.

Das, a resident of Amraghat area under Dholai constituency in Cachar district of Assam, was declared a foreigner by an ex parte judgment of the foreigner’s tribunal in January 2018 when he could not appear before the court and subsequently sent to Silchar Central Jail. Even though he was granted bail on humanitarian, the agony and stain of being declared a foreigner could not be alleviated from his mind.

Chandradhar had only one last wish – he wanted to die as an Indian citizen. He died at his home in Baraibasti, Amraghat on Sunday night. Family members cremated his body at night.

 

 

Noteworthily Dholai is the assembly constituency of State’s Forest and Environment, Excise and Fisheries Minister Parimal Suklabaidya and ironically his own party had recently amended the citizenship act in the parliament to bring minority communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan under the ambit definition of the Indian citizen. Political leaders who rejoiced and burst firecrackers to celebrate the amended Citizenship Act or even the article 370 abolition have suddenly gone in an airplane mode ignoring the plight of Bengalis like Das in Assam. Surely, they won’t refrain from taking credit for CAA in the next assembly elections, an act that got amended but never implemented, a rare feat in India.

Even the West Bengal BJP leadership is cashing in on the CAA for the upcoming elections in the neighbouring state with frequent visits by central leaders. They want the CAA to be implemented in the state but don’t spare a word on why there is no CAA implementation in Assam, the only state in India to have two NRCs. Perhaps, they fail to recognise the fault lines prevalent among the various linguistic communities in India and view everything from a religious binary.

 

 

Chandradhar Das’ daughter Niyati Roy and his brother have been working relentlessly for two years in a row unable to get citizenship for their father. Niyati Roy said, “My father was such a strong man. Even after going through painstaking efforts, he knew his religion was Hinduism and his country was India. His only wish was to die on the Indian soil as an Indian citizen. This country didn’t accept him as an Indian. Now that he is gone, there is no need to fight for it anymore as all our efforts are over now. We don’t think about it anymore. We have a mother with us and now we have to fulfill our responsibilities and obligations. Many people stood by us. The government is doing its thing. However, the pain of my father dying a foreigner will stay imprinted in our minds forever.”

Niyati could not stop her father’s arrest even after going door to door. Das’ physical condition continued to deteriorate and he reached out for help to various social organisations. They started petitioning the administrative officials for the release of Chandradhar Das. He was released after the initiative of former Cachar DC S Lakshmanan. However, even after getting released, he had to make frequent visits to the foreigner’s tribunal again and again. In the end, it was decided on humanitarian grounds that he won’t have to appear in the tribunal, his daughter and son would appear in his lieu.

 

 

Chandradhar Das used to refer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “baba”. He used to listen to his speeches almost daily. As soon as the speech began, he used to fold his hands and bow, as if bowing before an incarnation of God. Das used to say, “I am a Hindu and India is my country. I want to die after proving my Indian citizenship, not before that. I know Narendra Modi will fulfill my wish. However, I am afraid what will happen to my family if I die a foreigner?”

His wife Adarmani Das said, “When my husband was taken to jail, Modi got the news. He called and ordered for my husband’s release. Not only that, but the PM was also aware that we were living on Indian soil. But I don’t why the law of land with him at the helm of affairs didn’t protect us. Today my husband is gone, maybe tomorrow I will die too. He did not get Indian citizenship but died honorably in this land. As a Hindu, he died with dignity on Indian soil, what more do we want? I don’t understand the rest, but it’s hard for my two children. Maybe it’s a burden on their shoulders now.”

Chadradhar’s lawyer Soumen Choudhury told, “If the government wasn’t reluctant maybe he could have got citizenship. The CAA was passed last year. They made it a big issue and popularised it. However, it has been a year now, and still, no modalities have been framed by the government. Normally it takes around three months to prepare the modalities but astonishingly it is not the case with CAA. This single incident proved how faulty our social system is. The man was really full of life but couldn’t prove his citizenship before his death. I am saddened by it.”

Not many years have passed since 2014 when the PM came to Ramnagar in Silchar for a political rally before the elections, the waters of Barak still hold testimony to it. Lakhs of people visited the rally and many Silcharians streamed it live. In an aggressive voice, Modi had just declared that he would destroy the detention camps if voted to power. The spellbound audience broke into applause. People watching on YouTube clapped and banged their desks too.

“As soon as we come to power at the Centre, detention camps housing Hindu migrants from Bangladesh will be done away with” those were his exact words. The PM also white lied after being voted to power. He proclaimed there were no detention camps in India when at that time six detention camps in Assam (including the one at Silchar Central Jail) were already functioning, with another massive Goalpara Detention Camp in the making. The workers building the camp at Goalpara even feared that they would be the ones to be jailed inside it next as their names didn’t appear in NRC. The biggest question that lies ahead of us is how many more Bengali deaths in Assam will it take before this mess is sorted out?

English story written by Adwoy Purkayastha with inputs from Biswakalyan Purkayastha