If you're not a Hindu refugee from East Pakistan/Bangladesh, you'd never understand the deprivation, the dehumanisation and the degradation we faced. My grandmother left me a crumbling document: the refugee certificate that gave her, a widow, and her 5 children refuge in #India.

So long as she lived, nobody asking for food was turned away from the gate of her house. She always ate last, lest there was no rice left to be given to the hungry. My uncle once rebuked her. She shot back: We too were hungry when we came here, we lived on charity of relatives.

Refugees who came in from the west were recipients of Govt largesse. Refugees who came in from the east were left to fend for themselves. We were the unwanted. In 1979, hundreds of us seeking shelter in #India were massacred by the @cpimspeak led Left Front Govt at #Marichjhapi.

The #CitizenshipAmmendmentBill2019 will ensure that the less unfortunate among us, Hindu refugees from Muslim majority countries where they face dehumanising persecution, are restored their dignity. Please do not grudge them the compassion they deserve. Stand by #CAB

In these times, personal is political. I have always worn my refugee origins on my sleeves. I am grateful and unflinchingly loyal to #India, my country of birth. I live, breathe and dream India. And I believe I have been a useful member of the nation's citizenry. I back #CAB.

It should read *less fortunate.
Regret typo but these are emotionally fraught times. https://twitter.com/KanchanGupta/status/1204818620590653440?s=19

Don't worry dear Left-Liberals. We the poor, the unwashed, the disinherited and the persecuted will not seek shelter in your fashionable drawing rooms. We will rebuild our lives and contribute to #India in more meaningful ways than you ever have. We will be loyal to #India.
#CAB

An essay written long before #CAA in which I record the destitution, dehumanisation and disinheritance of being rendered a Hindu refugee, of becoming a nobody with an uncertain future from being somebody with a certain past. #India https://link.medium.com/8Y4JB5WFE4