A group of academicians, filmmakers, actors, artists, and other professionals from West Bengal have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, extending their support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which grants citizenship to persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
"We the people of West Bengal express our sincerest gratitude and unreserved admiration from the deepest core of our heart to you for enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and through for finally settling this excruciating episode, which has been tormenting and afflicting the Bengali psyche and soul for the last seventy years, since time of partition," reads the letter, a copy of which was accessed by ANI.
Nine signatories -- Anjana Basu, Prof Debashish Chowdhury, Arindam Chakraborty, Advocate Joydip Sen, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Anindya Pulak Banerjee,Milan Bhowmik, Sanjay Som, and Rantidev Sengupta have confirmed to ANI that they have signed the letter along with others addressed to the Prime Minister, extending support to CAA.
"History bears witness to the fact that partition has caused more pain and penury to the Bengali people than any other. A few far-sighted Bengali leaders and thought-leaders in the past had foreseen the calamitous consequences of partition. Their wholehearted efforts resulted in the creation of West Bengal. The long list of these sagacious personalities includes Sir Jadunath Sarkar, historian RC Majumdar, Prof Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay,Dr Meghnad Saha and last but not the least, Dr Syama Prasad Mukhopadhyay," the letter adds.
They have praised the Prime Minister for the "humane and historic step" taken with regard to the CAA and said it was a "watershed moment" in the history of Bengal.
"This painful episode of our history of partition and its continuing suffering in aftermath of partition, especially on the Bengal front would have remained suppressed and the victims neglected and marginalised through relentless propaganda of the combined opposition, had it not for this humane and historic step of yours, making this a watershed moment of our history," the letter states.
They said that the issue of CAA was "finally realised" under the Prime Minister's leadership and asserted that it could not be fulfilled earlier due to "parochial politics of vote bank."
"Respected Prime Minister Sir, as you have yourself stated a number of times, the demand for citizenship, for the people persecuted on religious ground, in neighbouring countries, is neither new nor recent. As a matter of fact, it started at the very dawn of independence. Due to some reason or the other, this demand was not being fulfilled, especially by those who were profuse in their promises then," adds the letter.
"Upon introspection, it is evident that parochial politics of vote bank which till recently triumphed over all other considerations delayed the granting of citizenship to these hapless people. Leaders came in and went out doing nothing more than making promises on this issue. But today that promise has been finally realised under your leadership," says the letter.
"It took seventy-two long years to confer a life of dignity in West Bengal to those people, whose right on this soil is second to none. We stand with folded hands and in gratefulness before you since you have relieved us from this ignominy and this promise that you have fulfilled will now empower and impart a life of dignity to lakhs and lakhs of people in West Bengal," the letter continues.
"CAA is finally a gazetted law with a full constitutional sanction in responses to the hopes and aspiration of these persecuted people. The collective blessings of millions of destitute people, whose tears you have wiped away by this epochal act, has immortalised you in the pages of history and in the hearts of Bengalis. We consider ourselves fortunate to have you beside us," says the letter.
The CAA or the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
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