Evidently, the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA)-National Register of Citizens?(NRC) package is flawed and dangerous. It undermines the Indian ethos, values and citizen rights. It is likely to affect foreign relations adversely. India’s secular image is bound to take a beating. Most shockingly, it has enormous potential to undermine the Constitutional values which is the biggest worry.
Religious minorities including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis and Jains from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh fleeing persecution will not be considered illegal immigrants if they have entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The Muslims are purposefully excluded. All immigration cases against them will stand abated. They will also be eligible for Indian citizenship on a priority basis after six years of residency.There is a caveat: States like Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh which require an inner-line Permit and the Sixth Schedule areas in certain north-eastern states including parts of Assam, the whole of Meghalaya and parts of Tripura will remain exempt. So, those who become citizens availing the new provisions will not be able to settle and exercise their rights in these regions.
By way of fulfilling the 2014 election manifesto, the BJP had introduced the Citizen Amendment Bill (CAB) in Parliament in the previous term but could not get it through Rajya Sabha. The 2019 election manifesto had the commitment to bring in the CAB. When the NRC was updated in Assam, 1.9 million residents, mostly Hindus, got into trouble. The BJP logic is Hindus in India’s neighbourhood have been suffering hardship, violence, and persecution. India is their only hope; hence, the CAB. The BJP also seems to believe that India is ‘infested' with illegal Muslim migrants constantly used as a vote bank by the so-called secular forces. In Assam, the BJP converted the hitherto ‘anti-immigrant sentiment' to an ‘anti-Muslim sentiment'. But when the outcome emerged, the calculations went awry. Far too many Hindus were out of the register. So, they came up with the CAB only as a solution.
However, the north-eastern States became furious. The resentment there remains deep against ‘outsiders’ irrespective of their religions. They began fearing much bigger influx of migrants from Bangladesh. So, the BJP introduced a set of exemptions in the new Draft Bill to strike a balance yet keeping the core of the CAB intact and also assure the northeast no loss of benefits in any domain.
The Assam Accord maybe understood clearly. Now, there is deep anxiety among Assamese that with the CAB in place, citizenship would be easily granted to any illegal non-Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh, thereby causing a painful overrun of natives by the aliens. The Memorandum of Settlement on the Assam problem was signed by the Central Government and the leaders of the Assam movement at the residence of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on August 15, 1985 as the result of a six-year agitation launched by the AASU in 1979 demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants. The accord incorporated all aspects including Constitutional and legal provisions, international agreements, national commitments and humanitarian considerations. The accord took care of the ‘Foreigners Issue’ and ‘Safeguards and Economic Development' and some more pressing social and economic issues apart from a section on ‘Restoration of Normalcy’. For purposes of detection and deletion of foreigners, 1.1.1966 was to be the base date, and that ‘all persons who came to Assam prior to 1.1.1966, including those whose names appeared on the electoral rolls used in 1967 elections shall be regularised forthwith'.
Foreigners who ‘came to Assam between 1.1.1966 (inclusive) and 24th March, 1971 shall be detected in accordance with the provisions of The Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964’, and their names ‘will be deleted from the electoral rolls in force'. ‘Such persons would be required to register before the appropriate authorities of the respective districts in accordance with the provisions of The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, and The Registration of Foreigners Rules, 1939’ while 'on the expiry of a period of ten years following the date of detection, the names of all such persons which have been deleted from the electoral rolls shall be restored. All persons expelled earlier but have since re-entered illegally into Assam shall stand expelled'. Foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 shall continue to be detected and deleted and practical steps shall be taken to expel such individuals. ‘Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.’
The BJP Government has been citing this clause to allay protests in Assam, but the Assamese have lost trust in the saffron design. The accord had also underlined the Government’s ‘commitment for the speedy all-round economic development of Assam with special emphasis on ‘education and science and technology through establishment of national institutions'. But perhaps not much has happened until now to prove nobility of the BJP intent. One of the top leaders of the agitation and a signatory to the accord, Prafulla Mahanta, had become Chief Minister and colleague Bhrigu Phukan a Minister. Current Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is also a former president of AASU.
The BJP was under pressure from the saffron hardliners to keep promise of a nationwide NRC in order to ‘expel’ immigrants. But in Assam, the NRC came in place without the CAA, leaving Hindus excluded. Hence, the big outcry.
The rabid saffron-hating Mamata Banerjee has taken advantage to effectively show dangers in the NRC. The bypoll results have already testified to the fact. The BJP plan is to first enforce the CAA and then push the NRC so that non-Muslims who are left out have a way back in. The party believes that this move will both give India the strongest-ever documentation of all its citizens and also turn out to be electorally beneficial in Bengal and the Hindi heartland. That is perhaps the ideological and political backdrop to the CAA maze. But the entire move is flawed and undermines India’s foundational values and Constitutional principles. India is a secular country. Religion is not the basis of citizenship. Religion cannot be the basis of discrimination. Those who suggest that India is the natural home to Hindus and not Muslims clearly indicate Islam is a foreign religion. Nothing can be more distressing for India’s 200 million Muslims, who have always been true Indians having served the country with a great sense of pride in every field over the centuries.
The CAA-NRC package deal will also be one of the most cumbersome, expensive and challenging bureaucratic exercises ever undertaken in the country. It is sure to place an extraordinary burden on citizens. India may turn heartlessly callous to the regularly-targeted Shias, Ahmedias and Mujahirs from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Myanmar Rohingyas and Sri Lanka Tamils will just have to avail the law to become Indian citizens. But the Muslims with their heart in India shall remain aliens for all times to come. India will cease to be a secular state.