In the midst of chaos, trauma and anxiety over the NRC, Assam is once again on the edge, socially and politically on the issue of Citizenship Bill. The debate on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is becoming louder and shriller each passing day. Most of the social organisations, civil society, human rights groups and political parties have so far expressed their anger against the Bill. Even the AGP, the alliance partner of the BJP, has broken its alliance with the BJP and many ministers have resigned while protesting against the Bill.
The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 and aims to give citizenship to Hindu, Parsi, Sikh, Jain and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The protest over the Bill is spreading far and wide and almost all the Northeastern states have expressed concern and protested against the Bill. The Bill has no doubt stirred up socio-political consciousness of volatile Northeast (on the issue of immigrants). The region has seen struggles and violent protests which gave rise to many outfits in the region. The outfits who were relatively calm may find ample ammo to raise the heat in the region.
Surprisingly, not only the allies but even BJP spokesperson Mehdi Alam Bora resigned from the party soon after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha. Those protesting also feel that the Bill undermines the ongoing updation of the 1951 National Registry of Citizenship (NRC), which, like the Assam Accord, also uses the March 24, 1971 cut-off date to determine a list of Assamese citizens. They believe that the new Bill will nullify the objective of the NRC defined to be achieved. On 7 January, more than 70 organisations observed Disgust Day across Assam to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. A strong supporter of the Bill includes BJP and BJD while parties like Congress, TMC, CPI(M), AIUDF, IUML, RJD and AIMIM have objected to it strongly.
Sanjoy Hazarika, a well known expert on Northeast, who is presently Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and has also served as Director of the Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research at Jamia Millia Islamia, told Radiance, “I am afraid that the sheer shortsightedness of this move will deepen the alienation of people in Assam and the region who have long been suspicious of the Centre. It is happening even as the state is being buffeted by trouble and trauma over the NRC.”
“The amendment will create conditions which will energise groups like ULFA and others, which had lost ground and were on the way to irrelevance. It could create a fresh period of ill will, violence and confrontation. It’s the last thing people want but if the Centre wishes to impose its will, it must be prepared for short term and long term consequences. Regional parties may support the party at the Centre because they’re often unable to live in opposition to Delhi. But if their very survival is threatened by such developments, they will turn fiercely on the Centre. The first to do was the AGP in Assam. Ours is a frontier state which is close to the Chinese, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan borders. It is vulnerable and that sense of vulnerability will be further sharpened now by this decision. As always Delhi does not listen, it hasn’t learned. Now watch the story unfolds from here onwards,” Hazarika argued.
However, according to Ravi Nair, a noted social and human rights activist and Director of South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, the Bill passed recently in Parliament is communal, sectarian and a travesty of justice. It is evident that the Ministry of Home Affairs neither understands citizenship law or refugee law. The ostensible stated reason is that the bill will provide citizenship to persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “We have a responsibility toward Hindus who are harassed and suffer in other countries. India is the only place for them. We will have to accommodate them here”.
“The Government of India is being very economical with the truth as well as the facts. It has been giving citizenship even under the previous UPA regime to Hindus and Sikhs who have fled the conflict from Afghanistan and there has been no controversy on this issue. Similarly, even under the last UPA regime, Pakistani nationals of Hindu Sodha ethnic origin have been afforded opportunities to take Indian citizenship both in Rajasthan and Delhi,” added Nair.
“If persecuted minorities were the yardstick to give citizenship then it is amazing that the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka have not been given citizenship in India. An overwhelming majority of them are Hindus who have been discriminated against by the Buddhist Sinhala administration in Colombo. It has been 30 years since they are living in India. Similarly, the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan forcibly evicted ethnic Nepalese who are Hindu by faith who are still living in camps in Nepal. India was their first country of asylum, as there is no contiguous border between Nepal and Bhutan. The perfidious security and diplomatic establishment of India pushed them into Nepal, saddling a poor country like Nepal with a huge problem. If the BJP government was so concerned about persecuted minorities and Hindus in particular, why doesn’t it give immediate citizenship to Tamils from Sri Lanka and Hindus of Nepalese origin from Bhutan?,” argued Nair.
“The Government of India is clearly influenced by the Israeli law of the right to return for Jews to return to Israel. For persecuted Muslims from Bangladesh and Myanmar, Rohingyas in particular, to get asylum and subsequently citizenship in India the Hindu fundamentalist BJP government is closing the doors. The Government of India is immoral in its attitude, illegal in its actions and doesn’t have a shred of humanity in its attitude. History and nemesis will not look kindly at this amendment to the Citizenship Act,” opined Nair.
Fuzail Ayubi, Advocate on Record, Supreme Court, also involved in cases related to NRC in Supreme Court and other issues in Assam as well as Babri Masjid case, told Radiance, “First, the bill is unreasonable constitutionally as it tries to give citizenship to foreigners on the basis of community, class, race only. It’s difficult for the bill to clear the judicial review on this ground alone if the same is challenged in the Supreme Court. Secondly, it is also unreasonable on the ground of basis as it seeks to keep out a particular community without any intelligible differentia. Thirdly, the entire NE which is culturally rich will be demographically prejudiced because of the Bill for no fault/reason. Lastly, the bill sets out Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh as the states where minorities were persecuted thus giving them the benefit of citizenship leaving out other neighbourhoods like Burma where persecution of minorities persists even today.”
The BJP may have their own reasons to go ahead with the Citizenship Bill but many experts believe that it will have some serious social and political implication in the region as we move from here onwards.