Odisha CM gives away citizenship certificates to 35 persons from Bangladesh

Prime Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday, December 11, 2025, issued citizenship certificates to 35 people who migrated from Bangladesh to India under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

Currently, a total of 51 people in Odisha have been granted citizenship under CAA, while 1100 applications are under evaluation.

According to the Civil Registry Office, all 35 people who received citizenship certificates belonged to the Hindu religion. Many had fled Bangladesh because they were tortured by the Muslim majority there.

“I have no idea under what circumstances we had to leave Bangladesh. My parents, now dead, said Muslims resorted to genocide in retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Everyone in the Hindu-majority neighborhoods was forced to change their religion. If anyone protested, they were persecuted and women were sexually assaulted,” said Paritosh Sarkar, 37, who received a certificate from Mr. Majhi along with his younger brother and older sister.

After escaping to Umarkote in southern Odisha district of Nabrangpur via Kolkata, these brothers settled down and intermarried with Hindu Bengali immigrants who settled in Odisha and erstwhile Madhya Pradesh after independence.

Similarly, 27-year-old Kiran Mandal is lucky to be granted citizenship while her brother and mother were unable to satisfy the district and state level committees with their documents. Its applications are being studied further.

Southern Odisha districts of Malkangiri and Nabarangpur are ready addresses for Bangladeshi immigrants.

A large number of Hindu Bengali immigrants had entered India from East Pakistan in the 1950s when they faced high levels of discrimination, persecution and harassment. They landed in West Bengal. However, the West Bengal government could not handle the huge influx of Bengali immigrants at that time. The Center had then chosen the sparsely populated Dandakaranya district of Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh) and Odisha for resettlement. A total of 280 villages were established in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts.

Since then, whenever there was any trouble in Bangladesh, Hindu Bangladeshi immigrants would knock on the doors of their relatives settled in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

As per the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 notified on March 11, 2024, persons belonging to minority communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 were considered eligible for Indian citizenship.

Welcoming the new citizens at the special program organized jointly by the Odisha Census Directorate and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mr. Majhi said, “You are now a part of our future. Your security, dignity and development are our responsibility and duty. I greet you as citizens of India.” He said that CAA-2019 is the sacred law that is hope and assurance for the persecuted minorities.

Majhi said, “Minorities in our country have the power and space to raise their voices. However, when minorities in neighboring countries face persecution, the same voices remain silent. However, today this mentality is changing. The practice of selectively choosing a single religion in the name of secularism has ended. There is no discrimination based on religion in the country anymore. Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. The Citizenship Amendment Act is a successful implementation of this principle.”