Dimlarpar (Bodoland Territorial Council), Assam: It was a rainy September afternoon in this remote village in Baksa, a district of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in western Assam. Outside a small tin-roofed mud house, Santi Rani Chand, a frail 72-year-old clad in a white saree, sat on a wooden bench recalling her youngest son’s suicide.
Binay Chand, 32, had hanged himself from a mango tree in a neighbour’s backyard in September 2018. “Are you from Guwahati?” she asked this reporter, tears streaming down her face. “There is a lawyer there. Can you take me to him? My son sacrificed his life because I am a D voter.”
In Assam, ‘D’ or ‘doubtful’ voter is a descriptor for those with questionable electoral credentials, suspected of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. It is an idea unique to Assam, a state which has been roiled by the issue of illegal migration from bordering Bangladesh. An inquiry initiated by the Election Commission or a “reference” made by the Assam Border Police Organisation–both can end in a D voter stamp.
Please click here to read more.