Stung by final NRC outcome, BJP readies new on-ground strategy for Assam

The number of those left out of the final NRC list is lower than BJP’s 40 lakh rhetoric, and not all excluded turned out to be ‘infiltrators’ by its yardstick.

Villagers whose names are missing in the final list of National Register of Citizenship stage a protest in Assam | Photo: PTI

Guwahati/Kamrup (Rural): A week after Assam’s final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list left the BJP disappointed and desperate, the party is ready with a new strategy — discredit the exercise and bring in a new re-verification law, woo Hindu Bengalis with the Citizenship Bill, and move the cut-off year to 1951.

The BJP had spent months raising the pitch on how it had managed to identify “40 lakh infiltrators”, but the final NRC list not only left out only 19 lakh people, also excluding several Hindus, who aren’t ‘infiltrators’ by BJP’s yardstick.

The party has consistently made a distinction between the ‘infiltrator’ — the Muslim who immigrated from Bangladesh — and the ‘refugee’, the Hindu who came in but who, according to the party, deserves to be granted citizenship.

There are no official figures, but sources say the BJP fears that as many as 10 lakh Bengali Hindus, some of Nepali origin and indigenous tribes, have been excluded. So the party is set to recast its on-ground political messaging.

It plans to enlist not only state leaders to question the NRC, but also senior national leaders, RSS workers and top influencers.

Discredit the NRC process

To begin with, the BJP will try to spread the message that it had nothing to do with the NRC, and that it was entirely a Supreme Court-monitored exercise conducted by NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela.

“It is important that the message of us distancing ourselves from NRC goes through. People often don’t understand this nuance and think since we are in power, we would have something to do with it,” said a well-placed source in the Assam BJP who did not wish to be identified.

“Like our CM Sarbananda Sonowal is known as a jatiya nayak (national hero), we have to pin down someone as the villain in the scene and hence, we will talk of Hajela as jatiya khalnayak (national villain).”

This process has already started, with senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma taking an aggressive stand against the NRC outcome and making repeated comments to that end.

“Our stand is clear. We want a correct NRC. We realised in the first draft list itself that the process was leaving out indigenous people due to lack of documents,” said Pradip Thakuriya, vice-president, Assam BJP.

“We demanded a re-verification. The NRC coordinator in court claimed that had already been done but there is no proof that re-verification happened. The Supreme Court didn’t question the claims either.”

Reach out to Hindu Bengalis

The BJP has two primary messages to convey to the Hindus left out. One, that its government in Assam will bring in a bill to allow re-verification — a process it had demanded but turned down by the Supreme Court. And two, that its government at the Centre will enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that seek to provide citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“This list is not the end, we should use this as a starting point. Once the SC’s role is over, we will bring in a law to ensure re-verification. On the ground, we are explaining to all Hindus left out that they shouldn’t worry and we will get the Citizenship Bill also,” Thakuriya said.

“We distinguish between refugees and infiltrators, and Hindus from Bangladesh fall in the former category. That is what we will explain to our Assamese people also, that we should throw out the infiltrators but respect refugees.”

While the BJP had to drop the idea of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in its last tenure, it is now emboldened by the smoothness with which it has managed to pass several controversial bills in Rajya Sabha in this term already.

“It is going to be an important point to convince the Hindus that we will indeed pass the bill soon. We will talk extensively about all bills we passed in last session, despite opposition, from Triple Talaq to a stronger anti-terror bill,” said a second source in the state BJP who also wished to remain anonymous.

Build pressure

Most importantly, the party wants to build pressure by making it some sort of a mass movement. According to sources, it will encourage the Hindus left out of the NRC to write en masse to the deputy commissioner’s office in each district, and seek reasons for exclusion.

“One, that will help generate much noise and amplify discontent. Two, it will build pressure on the Foreigners’ Tribunals also, over which the state government anyway has a degree of influence,” said the first source quoted above.

Another area where BJP plans to exert pressure is through talking about an NRC across the country, and in that context, ask for a revision of the base year. The Assam NRC used 1971 as the cut-off year for determining who immigrated illegally from Bangladesh, as per the 1985 Assam Accord. The BJP, however, wants it to be changed to 1951, since it believes many more Muslims will be excluded if that were to be done.

Further, the state government estimates that around 5 lakh people belonging to indigenous tribes did not even apply for the NRC, and the BJP will begin highlighting this fact to prove its point about the process not helping genuine citizens.

Mode of messaging

Crucial to these plans is how the BJP and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) actually spread the message.

The BJP has an elaborate organisation structure wherever it operates, starting from a panna pramukh (person in-charge of one page of the electoral roll) to vistaraks, morcha heads, zila heads, zonal heads and so on. Each of these levels will be roped in to interact with people on the ground, along with the RSS cadre and workers and local, influential party leaders.

“The idea is to hold small meetings across villages, towns and localities in cities to reach out to the Hindus and explain the party’s plans. We will designate workers to conduct these meetings,” said the second source mentioned above.

The BJP realises the importance of coherent and focussed messaging, and the need to ensure no unnecessary points are made. As per sources, leaders have been strictly instructed not to speak out of turn on the issue, and spokespersons have been given a clear line to follow. It is to that effect that Sarma is leading the charge and doing the heavy-lifting. The idea, sources say, is to ensure it is a sustained, strategic campaign.

The party knows it has to do a delicate balancing act so as not to irk the ethnic Assamese who have been resentful towards all ‘outsiders’, irrespective of religion. Sources say to manage this, “BJP will also send out a message that it was against this NRC process not only because of the Hindu Bengalis left out, but also because the indigenous people weren’t getting justice.”

These, however, are initial plans, and more modalities are being worked out. The BJP under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah excels at messaging, and will hope to use this to its advantage in the context of the NRC as well.