The letter ‘D’ has a different meaning in some areas of poll bound Assam. The letter ‘D’ connotes ‘doubtful’ or ‘dubious’ for some voters and it often deprives them from voting. In Assam the alphabet ‘D’ (which implies ‘dubious’ or ‘doubtful’ voter) is a category of voters who are disenfranchised by the Government on the account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials.
The problem started in 1997 during the revision of electoral rolls in Assam. During the intensive revision of the rolls, those persons who could not provide evidence in favour of their Indian nationality were marked with ‘D’ in the electoral rolls, to indicated ‘doubtful’ or ‘disputed’ status of their Indian nationality. The persons marked as ‘D’ voters were barred from contesting the elections and casting their votes.
However, it is alleged that many genuine Indian citizens —who were absent during the revision of rolls or missed the process — have also been marked as ‘D’ voters, who had since been deprived of their voting rights.
“My ancestors migrated to Assam from then East Bengal (from 1905 to 1915). I still have records of land patta issued by the then British administration in 1944. I have been voting since I was 18. However, I have been declared as a ‘D’ voter in 1997 and I am not allowed to vote since then,” said Khuda Baux (75), a resident of Bhergaon in Assam’s Barpeta district.
Khuda Baux has two wives and five sons. Although he, his two wives and two sons have been declared as ‘D’ voters since 1997, other three of his sons are not declared as ‘D’ voters and they enjoy the voting right.Khuda Baux has been pursuing it in the Foreigners’ Tribunal, who deals in these cases, since 1997 to get rid of the ‘D’ voters tag but to no avail.Interestingly, the name of Khuda Baux’s father’s name Kursush appeared in the 1966 voters list in Assam.
“The name of my father is very much present in the voters’ list of 1966. His name is enrolled against serial number 105 under 51 Jania legislative Assembly. Now, if his name is there in the 1966 voters’ list, how can they tag me as ‘D’ voters,” said Khuda Baux while showing the worn out copies of 1966 voters’ list and the land document which still bears the symbol of Queen.
“Most of these people are of East Bengal origin-mostly Muslims and Bengali Hindus. Ancestors of most of these people came during the early 1900 when the then British rulers of Assam encouraged Muslim peasants from Mymensingh district of present-day Bangladesh to settle in Assam to increase land productivity. However, these people have often been considered as illegal foreigners due to their linguistic inheritance from their ancestors,” said Abul Kalam Azad, a local youth and an activist.
“There are many villages (most of them are on the embankments) along the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries in the Barpeta district which are full of ‘D’ voters. They are illiterate farmers and do not know how to fight for their rights. When their lands are eroded by the rivers, they migrate to other place-their names gradually disappear from the electoral rolls and they are termed as illegal Bangladeshi nationals,”said Azad.
It may be mentioned here that according to the statistics of Assam election department, there are a total of 1,87,22,435 voters out of which 1,43,227 are ‘D’ voters. While Assam’s Sonitpur district accounts for the highest number with 24,909 ‘D’ voters, the Barpeta district has 22,814 ‘D’ voters.
“They need to go to the tribunal and hire advocates to fight for them to prove their Indian citizenship. However, for those who lose their lands and house due to erosion, it’s a serious matter. Above all, the red tapism of the Government department and judiciary also makes it difficult for these people to prove their ‘Indian’ citizenship,” he said.