PARTITION 2.0

Once upon a time in a cold winter morning I read a Turkish proverb which said, 'The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them'. These words started running into my mind the moment CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill) was passed in the upper house of the Indian Parliament. I introspected much on this bill, its consequences and the agenda lying behind it which eventually compelled me to scribe this article where I could express my genuine concerns and the questions which are still unanswered.

CAB is a new law which provides citizenship to all the illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who infiltrated to India because of the religious persecution they were experiencing in their very own states. The law applies only to the people from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and the Parsi community. In other words everyone excluding the Muslims. Today this bill has stuck a massive debate and anger in the country. Here one side is thumping their chests with pride, distributing sweets and burning crackers where the other side is now on the roads protesting against the tabled bill. Amid the protests, the less talked North-East is now in a shut down with heavy army deployed on the streets. Internet is off and the curfew is on in the air!

Are you a citizen of India?

Inorder to be a citizen of this diverse nation you will need to qualify atleast one of the four parameters given in the Constitution of India. Which says - Citizenship by birth, Citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalization and citizenship by registration. Citizenship is also awarded through a fifth way of 'Waiver' to those people who have excelled in various fields of life. Dalai Lama and Adnan Sami are some popular example of it. 

Constitutionally, the bill not only violates the article 14 of the Indian constitution which gurantees Equality before Law and Equal protection of the law but also granting citizenship to others on the basis of religion they practice strictly goes against the idea of secularism enshrined in the Indian constitution to which even the legislative forces can't defy.

The Broken Bill!

When it comes to formulation of the bill the government has completely messed up with the 'minority principles' and has just included the communities which best fits their majoritarian agenda. Technically, Abrihamic religions includes three communities i.e. Muslims, Jews and the Christians. Now through the CAB they have completely sidelined the Muslims and the Jews while inviting the Christians alone. The spine of the bill lies on the 'Persecution of Minorities' on the basis of religious identities. While framing the draft of the bill the framers were completely unaware about the other kind of persecutions existing in the society which are mainly 'Political' and 'Lingual'. During the time of the Bangladesh Liberation War many people from the east Pakistan (now Bangladesh) came to west bengal not because of the religious resemblance but because of linguistics similarity. In the same way, across the world there are many people who are chunked out from their respective nations just because their ideas doesn't fit in the idea their nation wants it's citizens to carry. Isn't the government generous enough to grant citizenship to these people too? 

The framers of the bill should also explain why they have included only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and has left the other neighbouring countries of India. If Minority persecution is the basis for the eligibility of the Indian citizenship then why they have excluded the Hazaras of Afghanistan, Ahamadiyas and Shias of Pakistan, Rohingyas of Myanmar, Uighurs of China and most importantly the Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka. There are so many countries in the subcontinent which not only discriminate it's citizens who practice the minority religion but also persecute those who follow no religion at all i.e. the atheists. 

As per the date fixed by the GOI, any person who has infiltrated or migrated to India before December 31, 2014 is eligible for the Indian Citizenship. The question is what made them to fix the following date. Aren't people persecuted post this?

Citizens Demonetised

As per the amended bill, even if you are eligible, after living for so many years in India you would have to first claim to be a foreigner inorder to get the valid Indian citizenship. With this, there will also be a question of evidence. How will one prove that he/she was the citizen of neighbouring country and was persecuted in the past at a certain time period. How all this will be done, nobody has got the idea about that.

After a failed exercise of demonetisation in 2016, a PM who failed to reveal his academic report card now expects from his 1.3 Billion people to stand in long queues again just to prove that they were born in this country and their ancestors died on this very land too.

Though the government is standing with no factual data regarding the total number of people who will benefit from this law even then for a small number of people the whole country will have to suffer and sweat again.

Burning North-East

From last few weeks the less talked North Eastern part of India has now become the centre of global attention with the heavy protest going there against the implementation of the CAB. It's not that the whole North East is on fire as much of it's area is already exempted from the bill. The concern lies with the fewer area coming into it. Out of the seven sisters, 4 of them i.e. Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh are fully secured with the ILP (Inner Line Permit) which eventually protects them from becoming part of any such law. Whole Meghalaya is secured with the sixth schedule leaving behind Shilong where some mild protests has taken place. The major disruptions are coming from the States of Assam and Tripura where the much of their land is now the part of centre's policy. In Assam particularly, two protesters have already lost their lives where many are still defying curfew with an aim to bring the bill down. Here the protesters are worried about the prospects of arrival of more migrants irrespective of religion, in a state whose demography and politics have been defined by the migration. The Assam movement (1979-85) was built around migration from Bangladesh, which many Assamese see as a threat to their culture and language beside the exhaustion of their land resources and job opportunities.

70% of Tripura is exempted from the CAB, but the difference is made in the other 30% as two third of the state population resides there only. The insecurity of these indigenous people lies in getting marginalized by the migrant families which has eventually brought them on the roads to protest. The country is now seeing the heaviest protest in the North East after four decades of peace post the Assam Accord.

The Ghost of NRC

If CAB is a trailer, NRC (National Register of Citizens) is a movie. It's that horror movie which is going to destroy the unity of the whole country and will make partition happen once again. CAB is just a gamble to identify and give citizenship to the non muslim migrants, the main agenda lies behind chunking out the illegal Muslims living in India through the NRC. This will eventually help the ruling government to fulfill its moronic promise of 'Hindu Rashtra'!

NRC was experimented without the CAB in Assam months ago where around 1600 crores rupees were spent in total. Interestingly, 1.9 millions people were found illegally living in India without proper documentation. The BJP government rejected the NRC results as majority of illegal people were Hindus. This completely backfired their plans which eventually compelled them to first put the CAB at the place so that the illegal Hindus can take Indian citizenship properly and later with NRC they can throw out the illegal Muslims. 

Once a nationwide NRC is implemented, ever thought where all these people will go whose names will not be there in the list? Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries has already denied entrance to these people. Now the government has already started constructing detention camps where all these illegal migrants will be kept. This solely reminds me of the concentration camps and the gas chambers Hitler used to crush the Jews and the Non Aryanites. The reality is NRC is another agenda driven majoritarian policy which is made to produce rift in society for pity vote bank politics.

The World is Watching

The shameful step of the central government has already started to tarnish India's image abroad. The UN officials have already warned India of the damaging effects of this unplanned and dogmatic act. The House Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress has already given a word to India on this. The Finance minister and the Home minister of Bangladesh have already cancelled their visits to India. Amid the massive protests in Guwahati, the Japanese premier has also postponed his meeting with the Indian Prime minister.

Today Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies of Asia and has its own success story. Since last few decades India and Bangladesh has mutually benefited from the growing ties between the two countries which has eventually helped them to make progress socially, economically and diplomatically. Bangladesh internally has made a lot of developments in its judicial system and has helped minorities develop to its highest potential. Alleging Bangladesh of persecuting it's minorities will not only degrade the ties between both the countries but will also restrict the future developments. This can particularly harm India at a time when it is going through the severe economic crisis.

The Way Ahead

India is now turning into a fascist regime. The leaders of the ruling BJP government has now replaced the Indian constitution with the Party Manifesto. On this 150th birth year of Mahatma Gandhi they have not only killed Gandhi once again but have also destroyed the Gandhi's idea of secular India. CAB and NRC, in effect, endorses the two nation theory by creating a hierarchy of citizenship based on religious faith, excluding muslim from the hierarchy. One should not forget that it was Pakistan which was formed on the religious parameters where India was standing tall with its Inter-communal harmony but today I have no doubt in saying that India is on the verge of becoming the Hindu-Pakistan. In a time where President has just become a rubber stamp of the central government, Judiciary should show some spine and do justice with the immortal idea of plural India. One should also remember that these are the illusions created just to divert the mind of the crowd from the real issue of economy, unemployment, inflation, farmer distress etc. 

(credits for images and map of north-east: Indian express)