Bodo vs Bangladeshi

[G.Subramaniam]

Tehelka = According to the officials, the migrants come across the riverine border, at first living on the chars (sandbars on the Brahmaputra), till they establish contact with the already-established Bengali Muslim community. They pay Rs 1,000 for a character certificate of sorts procured from the gaon burah (the village headman), which states they belong to that particular village and that makes them “Assamese”. With one foot in the door, they use the letter to then transform from an “Assamese” to a full-fledged Indian citizen all through forged documents — certificate to get a ration card, ration card to get a voter ID, voter ID to get a school certificate and so on.