Amid the intense campaign battle between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the West Bengal assembly polls, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday attacked the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress, granted land ownership rights to Hindus displaced from the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as well as to Tharus, besides announcing the renaming of the Bengali-speaking village of Miyanpur in Lakhimpur Kheri district’s Mohammadi assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh as Rabindranagar.
West Bengal goes to polls in two phases on April 23 and 29.
Addressing the Bengali-speaking Hindu families from the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in Miyanpur, Yogi said: “Now, the village of our displaced Bangladeshi brothers would be known as Rabindranagar, after Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, who gave the national anthem.”
The chief minister also announced the decision to withdraw various old criminal cases lodged against the Tharus.
He was speaking at public gatherings in Chandanchowki, a remote tribal village on the India-Nepal border, in Palia constituency and Miyanpur. He said the residents of Miyanpur were displaced from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) but were used as a vote bank without being granted land titles. “To conceal their identity, their village was named Miyanpur,” he said and added, “Just think, not even a single Muslim person but the name (is) Miyanpur.”
Miyanpur is a village in Mohammadi tehsil with a population of 2000- 2,500 with around 167 families.
This village is populated by Bengali-speaking Hindus, who migrated to this village (and a few other villages in Dhaurahra, Gola and Mohammadi tehsils) after the Partition in 1947 and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
Local residents, including Shivani, Govind Mandal, and Tapan Kumar Biswas, failed to describe how the village got the name Miyanpur. The chief minister said Partition and Pakistan’s policies had led to the repression and displacement of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis.
In his address in Miyanpur, the chief minister focused on the rehabilitation of over 1031 families displaced in 1947 and 1971.
He said that Hindu families displaced from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had also been rehabilitated in various tehsils of Kheri district, including Dhaurahra, Mohammadi, and Gola. He added that all of them have now been awarded full land ownership rights.
Describing the event as the correction of a historic injustice, he accused the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress of treating displaced Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains as mere vote banks while denying them basic dignity and ownership.
Referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as the tool that finally empowered these families, he said, “The Congress, SP and the TMC opposed the CAA because they didn’t want the displaced to have rights.”
While distributing land ownership certificates to 331 Bengali-speaking Hindu families from the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the chief minister blamed Pakistan for their displacement.
“Remember this sinful Pakistan, which first divided India through its (mis)deeds and then Pakistan itself also divided into pieces,” he said.
“Wait for more pieces now as Pakistan would divide into more pieces,” he said.
“The Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians living there bore the brunt for the sins of Pakistan only because Pakistan has no place for any other caste there,” he said.
Terming the existing land use rights to displaced persons as well as the Tharus as incomplete promises of earlier governments, Adityanath, in his address in Miyanpur said he has come to fulfil the unfinished promises on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Your ancestors were in Bangladesh, however, under the ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ commitment of PM Modi, you (the descendants) are getting ownership title of land in India,” he said.
Accusing the Congress, SP and TMC of indulging in divisive politics on caste and creed, Adityanath said these parties remained tight-lipped on atrocities in Bangladesh.
In Chandanchowki, he also announced full land ownership rights for members of the Tharu tribe and the descendants of freedom fighters.
Lauding Palia BJP MLA Romi Sahni for championing the cause of the Tharus and Mohammadi BJP MLA Lokendra Pratap Singh for advocating land rights in Miyanpur, Adityanath announced that the government has decided to grant full land ownership rights to 4,356 families of the Tharu tribe across 34 villages in Palia tehsil, covering 5,338 hectares of land.
He said Tharu families, descendants of Maharana Pratap, had been granted land-use rights in 1976. Now, on the eve of Rana Sanga’s birth anniversary, they have been given full ownership of their land.
He said 4,251 hectares of land were allotted to 2,350 families from east UP, living in 12 colonies in Sampurnanagar.
“For years, these families had land use rights but no ownership. Now, they are being granted ownership rights on the same land,” he said. The decision would bring stability and security to their lives and provide them with an opportunity to become self-reliant, he added.
District BJP president Arvind Gupta, BJP MLAs Romi Sahni, Saurabh Singh Sonu, Shashank Verma, Yogesh Verma, Vinod Shankar Awasthi, Lokendra Pratap Singh, Manju Tyagi and Aman Giri, MLC Anoop Gupta, BJP Awadh Prant president Kamlesh Mishra and Gola nagar palika chairman Vijay Shukla Rinku, besides others, were present on the occasion.
