Former Pakistani refugees get voice in Rajasthan poll

Jaipur: For many years, the 450,000 Pakistani refugees in western Indian state of Rajasthan were a scattered population. But now they are united.

This is election year in the desert state and political parties realise this population is a major vote bank - 80,000 of them are eligible to cast their ballot - after they stood together as an organised group.

Therefore, for the first time, in Rajasthan's political history, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has given a ticket to a refugee to contest elections to the 200-member state legislative assembly.

The candidate, 62-year-old Tarun Rai Kaga, fled his hometown in Pakistan to India during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. "We left everything in Pakistan and came here as homeless, landless. We stayed in refugee camps as vagabonds before the Government rehabilitated us."

As part of the government's rehabilitation move, Kaga was granted 25 bighas of land (around 15.5 acres) in Mohangarh in Jaisalmer. But Kaga stresses this was not the biggest moment in his life, nor when received Indian citizenship. "It is today when one of the country's major political parties has given me a ticket to contest the Assembly election," Kagas said with tears in his eyes.

Seat

Kaga is contesting the polls Chohtan assembly constituency in Barmer district on the Indo-Pakistan border.

"It's a proud moment for us," says a beaming Hindu Singh Sodha, founder president of Seemant Lok Sangthan (SLS), the only organisation of the displaced population from neighbouring Pakistan. "Now the establishment looks at us as a united force. It's a recognition of our political significance." (Kaga is the general secretary of SLS.)

Sodha has been waging a war for the legitimacy of the Pakistani refugees for a long time. These people, he says, are scattered in Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur districts in western Rajasthan. There are 80,000-odd voters in six assembly constituencies in these districts.

Before independence from the British, Hindus in these drought-prone areas often migrated to the fertile and irrigated areas of Tharparkar, Rahimyar Khan and Bahawalpur, now districts in Pakistan. After Partition, they settled down in Pakistan. But they facing persecution in that country, many of them have taken a return journey.

Says Sodha: "Most of these people visit India on a tourist visa and then extend it. The extended visa needs to be renewed four times a year, whereas if you manage to procure a long-term [LT] visa, you need renewal just once a year. Moreover, the LT visa is also a green signal from the Government that you can stay in India as long as you want, or as long as you need to get citizenship. The authorities don't harass you in the name of visa renewals."

This legitimacy has given the displaced population hope that their livelihood and land issues will now be taken up with the political leadership more effectively.

Moment of truth

Sixty-five-year-old Dhela Devi, a native of Umerkot district in Pakistan, trudged through the Sindh province to reach Barmer in 1971. In 2005, she got the Indian citizenship but she is more happy now to be able to exercise her franchise.

"I will cast my vote for the first time," she says failing to conceal the thrill in her eyes. Dhela Devi says many refugees, who got land as part of the rehabilitation exercise, still have not been able to get possession because of encroachment by influential castes. "If we have an MLA, I am sure he will exert enough pressure on the authorities to vacate encroachments on our land."