Mamata Banerjee’s land rights move for refugees is a political ploy, column argues

An opinion column has argued that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to give land rights to refugees is a political move meant to counter the BJP’s position on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), rather than a purely humanitarian step.

What the state announced

On Monday, Banerjee said her government would try to regularise all refugee settlements on plots of up to three acres, whether the land belonged to the state, the Centre or private owners. Residents of these colonies, whose occupation had been classed as adverse possession, would get rights over the land. She said the state had already begun regularising 94 colonies on state land, reportedly benefiting more than 13,000 families, and the move was reported to give free-hold rights to another 237 refugee families on central or private land. Speaking after a cabinet meeting, she said the refugees had waited nearly 50 years since 1971 for homes and land. “I believe refugees have the right,” she said.

The column’s argument

The writer said the idea was not new but its timing was significant. The column linked the announcement to the state’s new non-subsidised ration cards, which do not give access to subsidised food but can serve as proof of identity and address. It said residents were being pressed to get them by linking Aadhaar, voter ID and PAN cards, causing confusion, and noted that the Centre had issued no notification for such a document and no other state had done this. In the writer’s view, many refugees hold voter ID and Aadhaar cards but lack valid proof of address, which the new card and land regularisation could supply.

The column argued that Banerjee, who has said she will not allow the NRC in West Bengal after Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Rajya Sabha it would be carried out nationwide, including again in Assam, sees these steps as a shield against the NRC and the CAB. It alleged that the move was also meant to protect her Muslim support base, part of which it described as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. It said about 11 lakh Hindu immigrants had been affected by the NRC in Assam, causing a backlash among the BJP’s own voters, and that the CAB would give citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis who fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It put the number of refugees in the state at about 90 lakh, by various estimates.

The writer also raised legal concerns, saying land owned by the Centre or private parties was not the state’s to regularise and could spark a fresh Centre-state dispute, and that new documents would not help in an NRC that in Assam relied on legacy data. With civic polls due the following year and Assembly elections in 2021, the column concluded that Banerjee expected the announcement to bring electoral gains.

What happened next

Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election, the Trinamool Congress won 215 seats and the BJP 77, and Mamata Banerjee was Chief Minister after the election.

See also: BJP

Originally published on 29 November 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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