As India’s newest citizens vote in 2024, they say reality belies their expectations from citizenship

Khalilur Rehman (74) said that he does not fear CAA or the National Register of Citizens (NRC), unlike many Muslims of the State.

As speculation over fresh applications for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and its newly framed Rules dominate the political discourse in West Bengal, Khalilur Rehman (74) said that he does not fear CAA or the National Register of Citizens (NRC), unlike many Muslims of the State.

“We have no fear of the NRC. We have come through a bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh. How can they force us back again?” Mr. Rehman, resident of an enclave rehabilitation centre at Dinhata in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, said.

A total of 58 families were given accommodation in an apartment block near an agricultural market in 2021, after living in camps for almost six years, following the historic exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh on July 30, 2015.

In Dinhata, the settlement, housed in a large compound of two storied blocks, has not seen much political activity in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Flags of the Trinamool Congress have been put at a few places in the settlement complex, but leaders from major political parties have not come here to campaign.

Mr. Rehman, his wife and three children, came to India in November 2015 from Dashiarchara, a former Indian enclave situated in Kurigram district of Bangladesh. “We thought we were going to a bigger country. India is a bigger country and we felt that there will be more facilities there,” Mr. Rehman said.

The family has preserved various documents, including temporary travel cum identity cards issued in pursuance of the exchange of enclaves, as provided in the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement, and local newspaper cuttings, some with reports that those migrating from Bangladesh would get land in India and cash incentives of ₹5 lakh for each family. In his two-room apartment, E-2, Mr. Rehman’s wife Aklima Begum said that there was no drinking water supply, and the authorities had not provided any documents for the apartment.

The exchange of enclaves came into effect from the midnight of July 31, 2015, when 111 Indian enclaves in four districts of Bangladesh became part of Bangladesh territory, and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district merged with India.