Daily Times

The passage of Citizens Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019 by the Indian Parliament allowing Indian citizenship to minorities facing persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan is yet another tool acquired by the Hindutva regime to malign Islam and persecute Muslims in India. The bill identifies Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Christians as minorities facing persecution in these countries and allows them to get refugee status in India and Indian citizenship.

The intriguing question is as to why India had to discriminate against the Muslims while allowing citizenship to other minorities and that too from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan? One may wonder why would a Muslim from a majority Muslim country take asylum or seek Indian citizenship when Muslims of that country face discrimination and are treated as second-rate citizens. The only intent of this piece of legislation could be to show these three Muslim countries in bad light. One may understand Indian bias against Pakistan, but naming Afghanistan and Bangladesh is surprising especially when the leadership of these countries receive political and financial support from India. Afghan Charge d’ Affaires in New Delhi Tahir Qadyri took strong exception to the CAB and Indian claims of mishandling of minorities in Afghanistan. Already Afghans are miffed over negative portrayal of Ahmad Shah Abdali in the new Indian movie “Panipat”.

The international reaction to CAB has yet to come. However, the US International Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has expressed deep concern about the Bill and contemplating to recommend sanctions against the Home Minister Amit Shah and other top leaders of India. USCIRF, an independent bipartisan federal government body, called Bill’s passage “deeply troubling”. In its statement the USCIRF rightly pointed out that “in conjunction with the ongoing National Register of Citizens (NRC) process in Assam and nationwide NRC that the Home Minister seeks to propose, USCIRF fears that the Indian government is creating a religious test for Indian citizenship from millions of Muslims”.

Within India, opposition parties have condemned the bill but seem to have been marginalized due to overwhelming majority the ruling BJP enjoys; Modi government got 311 votes in Lok Sabha (lower house) in support of the bill against 80 while in Rajya Sabha (upper house) it got 125 against 105 votes. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi described passage of the bill as “a dark day in the constitutional history of India”. There have been violent demonstrations in Assam and other North Eastern states against the CAB as this legislation while disenfranchising Muslims would grant citizenship to Hindus migrating from Bangladesh. Maharashtra IG Police Abdur Rehman tendered his resignation protesting against the passage of CAB. He contended that if NRC and CAB are implemented jointly, the people belonging to the non-Muslim community even if unable to produce the required documents will be declared refugees and will be given Indian citizenship. This means the real burden will be only on Muslims to prove their citizenship. This will cause statelessness and hardships to Muslims who have been living in India for thousands of years and majority of them are the original inhabitants of India.

It is now becoming clear that Hindutva agenda is based on creating fear psychosis amongst the minorities, which is particularly blatant towards Muslims

Home Minister Amit Shah, however, defended the bill, saying “the bill has nothing to do with the Muslims in the country…the Muslims in the country would be able to live here with dignity, are living here, and will continue to do so”. Prime Minister Modi described passage of CAB in his twitter message as “…in line with our ethos of assimilation and compassion, it ensures a better life for persecuted minorities from other nations”.

From international human rights law perspective, approval of Citizens Amendment Bill (CAB) is in violation particularly of the (a) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 7 & 15); (b) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Articles 20 & 26); (c) International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Article 4), and (d) Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (Articles 1 & 3). These international conventions and instruments provide, among other things, that (i) all persons are to be treated equally before the law; (ii) no one should be discriminated, and (iii) legal protection must be provided against discrimination. The CAB, however, denies Muslims the right of refuge or citizenship which is against the basic human rights.

Moreover, 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons provides the definition of a “stateless person” and the foundation of the international legal framework to address statelessness. Similarly, 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness is the leading instrument that sets rules for the conferral and non-withdrawal of citizenship to prevent statelessness. Therefore, Indian legislation is not only discriminatory against the Muslims but in contravention of international norms in the conduct of international relations.

There is another aspect of Indian duplicity while enacting CAB; 1951 Refugee Convention talks about refugees fleeing war or persecution. India is not party to Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and does not have a national refugee framework. Secondly, International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families aims to promote “equality of opportunity” and “treatment of migrant workers”. India is not a party to it either. Therefore, even if CAB does not violate the text of these laws in strictest of legal terms, it is in violation of the spirit of all human right treaties and instruments. Perhaps the movers of CAB legislation forgot to take into account India’s international obligations on refugees and citizenship issues.

It is now becoming clear that Hindutva agenda is based on creating fear psychosis amongst the minorities, which is particularly blatant towards Muslims because of their substantive number (200 million) but equally patronizing towards other minorities. The Muslims of India have been squeezed and pushed to the corner. The next move by the Hindutva forces would be to squeeze them economically and confine them to ghettos. It reminds of the days when Nazi Germany displayed a sense of superiority and discriminated against the Jews. Since the major powers of the time tried to appease instead of reprimanding Hitler they had to repent later and bear the brunt of Second World War with massive death and destruction. Indian action is no different and its appeasement could be a precursor to the ensuing disaster which not only will create fissures in the Indian society but also engulf the entire region and the world. The Hindutva agenda and its promoters must be preempted now; there is no room for complacency.

The writer is a former ambassador