2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) the Delhi Agreement on the Rights of Minorities, now known as the Nehru–Liaquat Pact. 104 Following the passing of the CAA, the Nehru–Liaquat Pact was touted as a justification for offering citizenship to minorities. 105 This, however, is an erroneous conclusion. On the contrary, the Nehru–Liaquat Pact was an attempt to ensure the governments took over the responsibility for their own citizens, regardless of whether they were minorities or not. Aimed at ensuring ‘complete equality of citizenship’ and the assurance of all ‘democratic rights … without distinction’ to the populations of both dominions, 106 it made provision for Minority Commissions which were to submit reports to each government. The Pact did provide for ‘two ministers … from each government’ to remain in areas affected by the violence to ‘restore confidence to minorities for as long as necessary’, but it was clear that this was a temporary provision. 107 For the rightwing members, both within and outside Nehru’s cabinet, the pact amounted to a betrayal. Disenchantment with India’s refusal to accept a population exchange was the immediate cause of both Shyama Prasad Mukherji and KC Neogy’s resignations (the former would go on to found the Jan Sangh, the forerunner to the Bharatiya Janata Party (‘BJP’)). Subsequently, when the Bengal situation came up for discussion three months later, it was clear that the rights of minorities in East Bengal were seen as a ‘national, not a provincial concern’ for right-wing members of the Congress as well as other parties. 108 At the same time, a longer and more intractable problem was festering in Assam, just north of Bengal. Under British rule, the destinies of Eastern Bengal and Assam had been considered economically and culturally intertwined. Indeed, the province of Assam, as constituted in 1874 and again in 1912, included Bengali speaking areas such as Sylhet, the most populous district of the province until 1947. Geographically, Chittagong, close to the Burmese border in Eastern Bengal, was considered the ‘natural port’ for Assam. Between 1905–11, the first Partition of Bengal had politically united Eastern Bengal and Assam, with its capital in Dacca. 109 Given Assam’s frontier status and low population density, it was unsurprising that East Bengal’s predominantly Muslim population had moved north from the overcrowded districts of Mymensingh and Rangpur to emptier land in the North. Equally unsurprisingly, this had pitted the indigenous Assamese population against these immigrants. The ‘line system’, which started in 1920, 104 See Agreement Between The Governments of India and Pakistan Regarding Security and 105 106 107 108 109 Rights of Minorities, Pakistan–India, signed 8 April 1950, INTSer 9 (‘Dehli Pact’). The Delhi Pact, signed between Liaquat Ali Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru in April 1950, as a response to the riots on both sides of the border in Bengal, was the last major instance when both governments committed to ‘secure equality of citizenship rights’ to provide ‘a full sense of security’ for all minorities. I do not intend to argue that these assurances were not repeated later, but joint meetings were no longer to be the fora from which these emerged. ‘The Nehru–Liaquat Pact and Its Connection to the CAA’, IND Samachar, (online, 26 December 2019) <https://indsamachar.com/the-nehru-liaquat-pact-and-its-connection-tothe-caa/> (‘The Nehru–Liaquat Pact’). Dehli Pact (n 104) [1]. ibid [C(E)]. For discussions around the Motion A, see ‘The Nehru–Liaquat Pact’ (n 105); regarding the Bengal situation, see India, Parliamentary Debates, Provisional Parliament, 7–8 August 1950. Iqbal Iftekhar, ‘The Space between Nation and Empire: The Making and Unmaking of Eastern Bengal and Assam Province, 1905–1911’ (2015) 74(1) Journal of Asian Studies 69, 69–94. 224