Asad Mirza
as key issues during the election campaign with both BJP President Amit Shah
and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at loggerheads over it.
The BJP is pitching the NRC as a strong step against infiltrators and illegal
immigrants. Shah, during his rally at Kalimpong, in the hill district of Darjeeling,
spoke in favour of the issue, claiming that it does not affect Gorkhas and some
ethnic tribes of the region. Through the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the BJP
will look to grant citizenship to religious minorities who have been persecuted in
the neighbouring countries.
On the other hand, Banerjee has raised objections to both the policies, claiming
that several people will lose citizenship and voting rights.
What has happened in Assam, with the implementation of NRC is there for every
one to see. Scores of people have been labelled ‘foreigners’ and detained in
detention camps, despite having documents to prove their identity, domicile and
legal status.
NRC across India
Shah promised the implementation of the NRC across the country if voted to
power again. “We have promised in our manifesto that once Narendra Modi
forms the government again, we will implement the NRC across the country. We
will remove every single infiltrator from the country,” he said.
Following Shah’s statement, in a Tweet on 11 April, the official Twitter handle
for the BJP had posted, “ We will ensure implementation of NRC in the entire
country. We will remove every single infiltrator from the country, except
Buddha, Hindus and Sikhs”
As a result of this there was a storm on Twitter, Congress party said, “The BJP
has made it clear that they have no respect for our Constitution & no remorse in
dividing our nation on communal lines.”
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on his
Twitter account said,”They want to reduce the idea of Indianness to descent &
religion, erasing all other faiths, cultures & identities.”
Other people commented, “This is plain Saffron Terror. No pretences.
Shamelessness. The ‘Other’ and the ‘infiltrator’, according to BJP, is the Muslim.
This communal politics based on hatred, bigotry & Hindu extremism is what BJP
is all about. Official Twitter handle of BJP bats for bigotry and exclusion.”
The Kerala Christian Forum on 11 April demanded an apology from Amit Shah
saying, “It was a direct attack on the identity and integrity of the nation as a
secular state”. It further said “ we hope that Amit Shah and BJP tender an apology
to the nation and especially to the minority communities of the country, which
has felt persecuted by the statement.”
First prepared in 1951, National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register that lists
all “genuine Indian citizens” residing in Assam. NRC has often come under fire
for being “unfair” to citizens who are left out from it.
A month after Shah’s statement, an intervention application was filed in the
Supreme Court seeking action against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president
Amit Shah for his statements on Assam’s National Register of Citizens and the
Citizenship Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
The petition, filed by the Assam Andolan Sangrami Manch which is against the
citizenship amendment bill, said Shah had stated that the citizenship bill would
come first and then the NRC. Such an assertion had shocked the people of Assam
and left them scared, the NGO said. It claimed the amendment to the 1955 act
allows legally migrated Hindus, Sikh, Christians and Jains from Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Bangladesh to be citizens of Assam, which would affect the
interests of the indigenous people.
The petition said Shah’s statement had given “a colour of religion” in the process
of updating the NRC. It has given a wrong message to the people of Assam and “is
an onslaught on the judicial process of the Supreme Court.”
While the Home ministry, in its new amended order, spelled a clear road map for
those not included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), it also gave
unspecified and unprecedented powers to the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) – the
quasi-judicial authority that assesses the question of authenticity of a person’s
citizenship.
As per the latest announcement made on 10 June, the new Foreigners
(Tribunals) Amendment Order 2019, dated May 30, allows all states to constitute
their own FTs, earlier unique to Assam, to address the question of citizenship of
a person. The amendment empowers district magistrates in all states and union
territories to set up FTs to detect foreigners.
However, the community which seems to the biggest target of the NRC are the
Muslims. And it flummoxes one, that apart from Mr Owaisi, no other Muslim
leader has awaken to the threat of this action and what actions the community
should take to counter it.
The NRC gives a list of several identity documents through which one prove his
domicile and identity, such as: Aadhar Card, National Voter Card, Passport,
Driving Licence, Birth Certificate and Educational Certificate.
But the manner in which the whole plan would be implemented is that, the
younger minority citizens may escape the scrutiny, as most of them possess
virtually all documents required. But the biggest issue is that of our parents and
elders.
Once the NRC gets implemented, in case of senior citizens, their every document
will be rejected and the officials will insist on producing a Birth Certificate.
Now you tell me how many of our elders will have this birth certificate in their
possession. As during their time, most of the deliveries used to take place at
home and the first point where their date of birth used to be officially registered,
used to be the school, and so far, the school leaving certificate also used to serve
as the birth certificate.
Now as many of them may not possess a government issued Birth Certificate
they may be dubbed as ‘foreigners’ and ‘infiltrators’, and asked to leave the
country. This poses one dilemma for Mr Shah also, where would he send all those
whom he may identify as ‘foreigners’, to which country?
The community leaders should put their heads together to decide their strategy
to counter this evil plan, once it is implemented in a year or two. Otherwise, as
always we’ll continue to sleep till the danger is knocking at our doors and then
will respond in a knee-jerk and completely undignified manner to the problem.
Let’s try to bring this issue at the top of Muslim leader’s and community’s agenda
and try to find a way out before it is too
