Daily Times

For the first time in the history of independent India, any act would have attracted so much attention of the people that government had to activate its party workers to protest in support of the act. It shows that the government, with full majority in parliament, had managed to get it passed but without much homework. Citizenship Amendment act has been passed by the government in Parliament without much debate and later appears before public for debating its benefits. The BJP leaders are moving door to door, holding public rallies to convince people that these two citizenship laws would benefit them.

The government have also been using print media by publishing articles in favour of the citizenship laws many of them written by media companies. Under pressure from the day and night mass protests demanding withdrawal of these two contentious Citizen laws spread in every nook and corner of the country, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership and its Governments at the Centre and in the states have to follow these paths. More than 20 persons have been killed in Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone, where Muslims house have been allegedly vandalised by the state police. The family members old, women and children were also brutally beaten.

The students of Jamia Millia Osmania University, New Delhi were beaten by masked men who did not even spare those students who were studying in the university library. The repression on protesting students was also let loose at the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Seeing the nature of these protests, one can easily conclude that these protests are secular, participated by liberal and secular Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and leaders/people representing various castes. These mass protests reflect too secular in colours causing discomforts to Government.

In the widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, many outside the Northeast are looking at it in combination with a proposed nationwide NRC. Why does that worry so many people, particularly Muslims? How will Indians prove citizenship?

For over a month, the country has witnessed widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), especially in combination with the proposed all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC). Indians are debating what the combination means for various sections, and discussing why Muslims are worried. It depends on whether you are a resident of Assam, which has already had an NRC exercise, or whether you belong to another state. While Assam is the only state to have an NRC, first prepared in 1951 and finally updated in 2019, the proposed nationwide exercise would be a first for the rest of India. Legally, there is no paradigm yet for a nationwide NRC.

The Assam NCR results surprised the government because of 14.5 lakh Hindus who could not produce the relevant papers – as opposed to 4.5 lakh Muslims – and were mostly Bengali Hindus and supporters of the BJP in the eastern state. These 14.5 lakh Hindus who are BJP voters would have become stateless along with the 4.5 lakh Muslims.

To help these stateless Hindus in Assam, whose numbers have come out to be 300 times more than the Muslims numbering 4.5 lakhs, the proposal to amend Citizenship Law was brought in covering six communities namely Hindu, Sikh, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and have faced religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship. It amended CAA also relaxes the provisions for “Citizenship by naturalisation”. The law reduces the duration of residency from existing 11 years to just five years for people belonging to the same six religions and from three countries. The aim of the whole exercise was to declare maximum Muslims as stateless and tell them to go back to their country of origin/birth if not possible then stay in Detention Centres for rest of the life with their families.

Those staying in Detention Centres will not have the right to have Aadhaar Card (Similar to Pakistan’s Shanakhti Card) or any other identity document from the Government. They will not be allowed to do business or open bank accounts. They will be ineligible of any private or government job because of their status being “stateless’ and not treated as a citizen of India.

The aim of the whole exercise was to declare maximum Muslims as stateless and tell them to go back to their country of origin/birth if not possible then stay in Detention Centres for rest of the life with their families

The stateless will be kept under special watch in the Detention Centres where they will be provided with bare facilities to survive. The Detention Centres have already been constructed or are under construction in Assam, Bengaluru and Mumbai and a few other states. The ministry of home affairs is under Amit Shah has issued a communique to all the states and union Territories to construct Detention Centres and funds have also been released.

The members of the above mentioned Six faiths excluding Islam facing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship. The Government’s the contention is that these three countries are Islamic states and Muslims there are do not face any persecution. The new CAA has also relaxed the provisions for “Citizenship by naturalisation” and in the new law duration of residency has been reduced from existing 11 years to just five years for people belonging to the same six religions and from the three countries.

The Citizenship amendment law was introduced in 17th Lok Sabha by the Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah on 9 December 2019 and was passed on 10 December 2019, with 311 MPs voting in favour and 80 against the Bill. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 11 December 2019 with 125 votes in favour and 105 votes against it. Because of brute majority of the Ruling BJP in Parliament 303 seats not much debate took place in public even before the presentation of the Citizenships Laws nor too much discussion took place inside the parliament and the Rajya Sabha.

On December 9, when Home Minister Amit Shah told Parliament that a nationwide NRC is on the cards, he distinguished it from the new citizenship law and said the NRC will have no religious filter. It is unclear if the government will bring in a fresh law to mandate a nationwide NRC. The NRC exercise, as Amit Shah has repeatedly said, is to identify illegal immigrants and ghushpattis (intruders) from Indian citizens.

In Parliament, Home Minister Amit Shah did present it as a shield for Hindus left out of the Assam NRC. He said all other legal proceedings will stand abated when an individual applies for citizenship under CAA. Without CAA, everyone left out of the NRC would have eventually faced, or is already facing, proceedings in Assam’s Foreigners Tribunals, according to the Indian Express.

However, it is not clear whether the same shield will be available to Hindus left out of NRC in other states. Even in Assam, it brings up a contradiction. This was raised by Congress MP KapilSibal who, in Rajya Sabha, brought up how a Hindu in Assam who is left out of NRC can use the citizenship law as a shield. The opposition leaders have accused the ruling BJP of trying to appease the Bengali Hindu vote-bank bypassing CAA and raising the pitch on a nationwide NRC. West Bengal is headed for polls in mid-2021.

“You know what they’ve said in their legacy papers? That they are residents of India. You are forcing them by law to lie that they were persecuted and came from Bangladesh,” Sibal said.

The AIMIM’S Asaduddin Owaisi, during the debate in Lok Sabha, had alleged that the intent of the legislation was to make Muslims stateless. “If this Bill is allowed, the Foreigners Tribunals will only deal with cases related to Muslims,” he said.

Owaisi had moved an amendment in Lok Sabha saying the law should be applicable for all persecuted religious minorities. This was aimed at making a point that if there is a nationwide NRC, the CAA will not be discriminatory towards one specific community. And the corollary is also seen as true: If there is no nationwide NRC, the CAA will lose its lethality, vis-a-vis Indian Muslims.

The Trinamool Congress MP Prof Saugata Roy, while opposing the previous version of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in January, had said the law would be welcomed if it excludes Bangladesh, and it would be acceptable to Assam too.

The SP member S T Hasan had called the citizenship law a precursor to NRC. “Muslims do not have a proof of residence even for five years… Muslims are afraid that their name will not appear in the NRC and they will be declared as infiltrators,” he had said.

The Indian Union Muslim League, with four MPs, has challenged the law before the Supreme Court, on the ground that with CAA and the nationwide NRC, the direct and inevitable consequence of it was those belonging to Islam would be “disproportionately targeted” on failing to prove citizenship, in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.

As many 66 Civil Writ petitions have been filed in Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of Citizenship laws. The state of Kerala has also challenged these laws in SC alleging that these Citizen laws are based on religion and biased against some religious minorities of the country. The Kerala state has also Challenged the Passport act on grounds of religious inquiries.

The Challenges to the CAA before the Supreme Court, however, are likely be decided considering the constitutionality of the law. It is unclear whether the court will consider what CAA means alongside the prospect of a nationwide NRC or not.

The writer is a senior journalists and Indo-Pak peace worker. (EOM)