It was recently reported by The Telegraph that two senior citizen friends died from a heart attack in East Burdwan, West Bengal. Their deaths were allegedly caused due to being in panic over collecting documents to prove their citizenship amidst certain statements coming from the Centre about nation-wide NRC. While this stance of the government was quite clear until a few days ago, the Centre is now back tracking from its own statements, creating an atmosphere on confusion which is certainly not helping the climate of fear which has already set in amongst the masses.

The two deceased, Abul Kashem Sekh aged 68, and Abdus Sattar Sekh aged 65, lived just 800m away from each other at Karui in Katwa. They passed away just a few hours apart, in the wee hours. Both of them were marginal farmers who were compelled to stop their work in the fields to try and gather their land related documents from government offices, living under the fear of being excluded in the nation-wide NRC and meet the same fate as their fellow citizens in Assam. They were, reportedly, knocking doors of government offices, including those of gram panchayat and block, in the days preceding their deaths, in the hope of finding their land documents that would help them make changes in their Aadhaar cards.

Sources informed The Telegraph that their deaths have prompted anti-CAA tension in the village where several residents had been gripped by panic.

This incident just adds to the deaths caused due to panic over CAA-NRC. Sabrang India has earlier reported about over 11 deaths in Bengal caused due to the prevalent terror surrounding the uncertainty of CAA-NRC. There have been cases of suicides and even of people dying while in a queue for collecting their documents from government offices. What is pertinent note is that most of these deaths are among the common working class people.
 

Previous deaths

It was reported on September 26 that according to the police a 25-year-old man hung himself in Dhupguri, while a 50-year-old man jumped, into a well in Jalpaiguri. 32-year-old brick kiln worker Kamal Hossain Mondal who was worried about his family’s fate if the NRC is implemented in Bengal, was found hanging from a tree near his house on September 22.

On December 15, India Today reported that 36-year-old woman was found dead in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman with her family claiming that she was scared about CAB (now CAA) and NRC as she had visited the block office many times to get documents for her son who did not have a birth certificate.

The Telegraph reported on September 21 about a 38-year-old farmer hanging himself to death in Jalpaiguri and a 52-year-old Mantu Sarkar dying after falling ill while standing in queue with thousands of other villagers at the block office in Balurghat to get his digital ration card.

The panic over CAA-NRC has taken lives of about 16 or possibly more people, mainly from the working class, such as farmers, daily wage workers or MGNREGA workers, in West Bengal
 

Related:

Woman found dead in West Bengal, family claims scared of NRC she killed self
Friends die on same day in ‘CAA panic’ in East Burdwan
NRC rumours spark suicides in Bengal, BJP stirs communal pot
Bengal Suicide: Panic over NRC is taking lives
CMS opposing NRC must stop NPR exercise in their states: CPIM
West Bengal comes out in large numbers against the CAA and NRC
A peek into the right-wing’s playbook of hate
Murshidabad police detain BJP worker wearing skull cap

The post Over 16 deaths so far due to CAB-NRC panic in Bengal? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On Wednesday, December 4 2019, the Union cabinet gave a go ahead for the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) to be tabled in the Parliament next week. This would possibly be the first piece of legislation perniciously discriminatory, based on religion/faith. This Bill violates Articles 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution. It would therefore be brazenly against secularism—the basic structure of the Constitution. This Bill is coming after the exercise of National Register of Citizens (NRC) conducted in the north eastern provinces.

The NRC disenfranchised around 19 lakh people, rendering them state-less, non-citizens in Assam. This was done under the supervision of the apex court led by former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who himself is from Assam. Thus, even the highest judicial institution does not seem to be of any help, in this politically motivated exercise of disenfranchising people of a particular faith. There are many other instances, including the Ayodhya title verdict of November 9, 2019, which render hapless citizens much more vulnerable than can be imagined.

In a third world country such as India where people sitting in the highest offices are not able to produce authentic educational degrees and certificates in proof of date of birth, common masses are forced to retrieve multiple documents pertaining to their ancestry. This has already created spine-chilling fear among people. Having found out that this exercise in Assam has turned out to have converted fairly large number of Hindus also into non-citizens, the BJP government, true to its perniciously divisive and hate-filled majoritarian ideology and praxis, is now coming out with a legislative bill which seeks to provide all relief only to those who are not Muslims.

This Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) is quite consistent with the treatment meted out to the Palestinians by the state of Israel, with unmistakable Zionist ideology: only Jews have citizenship entitlement. This is one of the greatest ironies of human history that the incumbent Hindutva regime derives its ideological inspiration from the Nazism of Hitler (and Fascism of Mussolini), who was the cruellest persecutor of the Jews. Yet, it also remains friends with the Zionist Jews, in terms of both ideology and praxis.

The wonderfully inclusionary nationalism of India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle and its self-conscious assumption of role as the world-leader against all kinds of persecutions and oppressions, the Indian National Congress had come out to condemn the Hitler’s great anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9, 1938, infamous as ‘Crystal Night’. On December 12, 1938, the Congress went on to offer the concession of asylum in India to the German Jews. Thus, this too will go down in history as a big irony, that these persecuted Jews today appear to be with the Hindutva forces, the regressive bête noire of the Indian nationalism espoused mainly by the Indian National Congress.   

The chief theoretician of Hindutva, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), had already proposed such brazenly discriminatory notions of citizenship and nationhood. Savarkar wrote his book, Hindutva, in 1917, clandestinely in the Cellular Jail, of the Andaman Islands, published it underground, in 1923. Savarkar was the President of the Hindu Mahasabha during 1937-1942, while its Secretary, during 1926-1931, was K. B. Hedgewar (1889-1940), the founder of the RSS.  

Savarkar’s speech, on ‘India’s Foreign Policy’, delivered at Pune on August 1, 1938, said, “…Germany has every right to resort to Nazism and Italy to Fascism…Hitler knows better than Pandit Nehru does what suits Germany best…”. In his speech at Malegaon, on October 14, 1938, Savarkar said, “A nation is formed by a majority… what did the Jews do in Germany? They being in minority were to be driven out from Germany”. And in a speech of December 11, 1938, Savarkar said that “in Germany the movement of the Germans is the national movement but that of the Jews is a communal one”. These views find echoes in a 1939 book, We, or our Nationahood Defined, by M. S. Golwalkar (1906-1973). He wrote, “…Muslims may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen’s rights”. All these views were endorsed and popularised in 1939 by the Marathi newspapers, The Mahratta, and also in Kesari (December 8 and 15, 1939). From 1924 to 1935, Kesari remained immensely impressed with Fascism in Italy.

Savarkar, few years before his death in 1966, also wrote a book in Marathi, Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History, wherein he justified the idea of rape of Muslim women in riots as a political tool.

B. S. Moonje (1872-1948), the mentor of Hedgewar, was the first Hindutva icon to have contacted the fascist regime and its dictator in Italy in March 1931. He was on a tour of Europe after the first Round Table Conference. Moonje particularly visited the Fascist military training schools, and he ‘played a crucial role in moulding the RSS along Italian (Fascist) lines’. M. R. Jayakar (1873-1959), another leader of Hindu Mahasabha also ‘drew inspirations from the fascist paramilitary organizations’.

The entire gamut of political opposition is either silent or meek. Apparently, growing number of Hindus don’t seem to be as much outraged with whatever is happening now. If state-backed lynching is not able to rouse the people, what else really can!

For me, as a student of modern Indian history, cause of greatest concern is: how has India become this menacing?

The colonial construction about India’s past was done in a manner as to paint the Muslim rulers merely as invaders, and all Muslims responsible for whatever the Muslim rulers did in medieval past. Even after independence, the historiography of Partition has been articulated and popularised mostly to vilify Muslims as mere separatists and fifth-columnists. Almost entire guilt of partition has been put squarely on Muslims. This has been done even in the nationalist, liberal-secular persuasions of historiography. The rising majoritarianism not only of the Hindutva forces but also within the Congress, particularly from 1938 onwards, remained least known, even to the academic historians. Then, what to say of the popular spaces!

That this majoritarianism had certainly no less roles in dividing India, remained, and still remains, least popularised version of Indian history. This has further contributed in creating majoritarian hatred against Muslims. This has gradually created a permissive and receptive atmosphere for the Hindutva ideology among the increasingly growing number of Hindus.

During the anti-Emergency movement, the ‘respectable’ socialists went on to provide further legitimacy to such divisive forces. As said by Arvind Rajagopal, “With the taint of the Gandhi’s assassination, the RSS was truly a political pariah. But after the Emergency, acquiring political power came within reach. The fortunes of secularism, and of Hindutva, were decisively changed thereafter”.

The RSS ‘realised the significance of popular mobilization’ and later on ‘fabricated an account of democratic struggle that exists mainly in its own records’. They wear it on their sleeves and proudly call it ‘second freedom struggle’. They had stayed away from the anti-colonial freedom struggle and had also compromised with the British. In a meeting with the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow at Bombay on October 9, 1939, Savarkar had assured him that ‘the Hindu Mahasabha favoured an unambiguous undertaking of Dominion Status at the end of the World War II’ and thus, ‘the Mahasabha was more interested in succeeding the British with their complicity, rather than fighting them’.

Not only this, Indira Gandhi herself, after coming back to power in 1980, tilted rightward. She accepted the invitation of VHP’s Ekta Mata Yatra (also called Ganga Jal Yatra) which was its first mass contact programme. The Ramjanmabhoomi campaign came after this Yatra, and the rest is history that continues to haunt us. Rajiv Gandhi’s Assam Accord (1985) is the genesis of this citizenship precipice.

The incumbent government, continuously failing miserably on economic fronts, is constantly resorting to communal polarization. The Indians have to see through these destructive designs.   

*The author is a professor at Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University

The post A Legislative Bill for Faith-based Citizenship: How India Has Reached This Point of Disaster? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Who is a Citizen?

In India, Citizenship related laws are laid down in the Citizenship Act of 1955. According to this Act, Indian citizenship can be acquired by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation or incorporation of territory. However, when it comes to the state of Assam, there are a few special provisions that were added via an amendment after the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985.

Clause 6(A) was added to the Indian Citizenship Act via this amendment, and is significant in the present context given how the strongest anti-CAB protests have come from the state of Assam which recently underwent a tedious and expensive process to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC). 

How CAB legitimises asking Muslims to take a hike

The Bangladeshi bogeyman has haunted the collective imagination of bigots and privileged ‘apolitical’ fence-sitters for almost half a century. The narrative is eerily the same; “secular” parties are allowing Muslims to infiltrate India so that their vote bank can be strengthened. No prizes for guessing the author of this piece of tepid piece of fiction.

From Cheetah Camp and Malvani in Mumbai to Karimganj and Kachar in Assam to Malda and Murshidabad in West Bengal, many districts, neighbourhoods and settlements with a majority population of Muslims, have borne the notorious sobriquet of “Mini-Pakistan” and “Chhota Bangladesh”, being relegated to a foreign identity for not being ‘Indian’ enough.

The same sentiment gained wider currency with right-wing ÍT cell’ trolls using words and phrases like “sickular”, “libtard” and “go to Pakistan” to make flimsy counter-arguments against secular forces, civil society and sundry dissenters.

Right-wing supremacist forces, utterly devoted to conflating the wider Indian identity with that of people who follow one religion or philosophy, felt emboldened when their electoral dreams came to fruition in 2014.

The CAB was first was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 19, 2016. The objective was to grant Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians facing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Indian Citizenship subject to certain conditions. Those seeking refuge should have entered India before December 31, 2014. Also, the 11-year rule for granting citizenship to refugees would be relaxed in these cases to just six years.

It is noteworthy that safe haven was being offered to everyone except Muslims. The government however responded saying that this was because the three countries from where refugees were being accepted were Muslim majority countries and therefore Muslims there would not face persecution. This argument will be deconstructed and rebutted later in this piece. It is also noteworthy that an initial draft of the BJP’s manifesto in 2019 had omitted Christians and Parsis, who were added, perhaps begrudgingly, only after it was pointed out by a national newspaper.

The CAB was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on August 12, 2016. The JPC submitted its report on January 7, 2019. While it was passed in the Lok Sabha the following day, it lapsed as it could not be cleared before the government’s term ended in June 2019.

The BJP now plans to table the CAB in Parliament on December 9 and has issued a whip to its MPs to remain present on the house in a bid to ensure that the bill is passed. Assuming all MPs comply, BJP’s brute strength majority of 303 in the 543 member Lok Sabha could ensure smooth sailing for the CAB.

But it won’t be that easy in the Rajya Sabha. Of the 245 seats, 5 are currently vacant. The BJP and other NDA members total to 117, while the UPA has 67 members and others come to 58. The combined might of UPA and others (that included TMC, SP, BSP, AAP etc.) come to 125. It would be interesting to see how the Shiv Sena MPs vote given their new-found alliance with the Congress and NCP in Maharashtra. Similarly, NDA members such as the Asom Gana Parishad will also be under tremendous pressure, given the strong opposition to CAB in the state of Assam and even across the wider Northeast region.

Why ‘seven-sisters’ won’t take the CAB

In the Northeast, though anti-CAB protests have broken out in all seven states, it is in the state of Assam where they are perhaps the loudest, strongest and most consistent. This has to be viewed in context of the Assam Accord that was signed in 1985 to alleviate fears of a demographic change in the state due to an alleged influx of ‘foreigners’ from neighbouring Bangladesh in wake of the 1971 war. In fact, clause 6 (A) was added to the Citizenship Act via an amendment in 1985 to address this very concern. The provisions of this special clause are as follows:

The conflict in Assam cannot be dismissed by explaining it in over-simplified terms as just an ethnic divide. There are very strong sentiments associated with the Assam movement that demanded the expulsion of all ‘foreigners’ from Bangladesh irrespective of their religion. But, true to its divisive agenda, the BJP began to add a distinct religious hue to the cauldron of conflict that was already bubbling over.

The BJP now wants to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh through CAB, something Assamese groups such as the All Assam Students Union (AASU) that was at the forefront of the Assam agitation in the 80s will never accept. At a protest held on Saturday December 7, AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya famously proclaimed, “Assam is not a dustbin for illegal immigrants.” The Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), two key opposition parties in Assam, are also opposing CAB on the grounds that it violates provisions of the Assam Accord.

The timing of CAB in Parliament couldn’t have been worse, given how December 10, the date picked by the BJP to pass the bill in the Lok Sabha is also martyrdom day of those killed in the Assam agitation. This has egged AASU to call for a bandh on the day. Bhattacharya said, “December 10 is also the ‘Swahid Divas’ in the memory of the martyrs of the Assam Agitation. We appeal to the masses to offer their respects to the martyrs early in the morning, and then observe the bandh on the day.”

The 12 hour bandh starting 5AM on December 10 is also supported by several left-leaning organisations such as SFI, DYFI, AIDWA, AISF, AISA and IPTA.

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal who was once at the helm of not one but two Supreme Court cases concerning the citizenship issue in Assam, is on shaky political ground now given how his constituents vehemently oppose the BJP’s desire to bring about CAB. In fact, AASU activists waved black flags at him on Saturday. On Sunday, it was the turn of members of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) to wave black flags at Sonowal. His appeals to the youth of the state to not join anti-CAB protests and focus instead on ‘development’ are falling on deaf ears.

The equations in the rest of the Northeast are also complicated. There are tribal communities belonging to different ethnicities who have by-and-large followed their traditional ways of life and lived within their traditional habitats, many of which have been offered protection under the Inner Line Permit scheme and the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Inner Line Permit areas include the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh, and large swathes of Mizoram and Nagaland. The sixth schedule protects tribal regions across Meghalaya, Tripura and also includes some parts of Assam.

While CAB has provisions to protect these tribal areas that are notified under the sixth schedule, this has led to further questions being raised about the efficacy of CAB in the North East. In fact, on Saturday, Samujjal Bhattacharya also raised this exact matter saying, “If CAB is bad for the Inner Line Permit areas, sixth scheduled covered area, then how this CAB can be good for the other parts of Assam and North East? Bad means bad, bad for all!”

In fact, in November this year, BJP’s Meghalaya general secretary Bashailang Khongwir himself wrote to BJP chief Amit Shah pleading that Meghalaya be left out of the CAB and to uphold the special provisions granted to indigenous people of the state. The BJP has two MLAs in the state and is a part of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance led by National People’s Party chief Conrad Sangma. “The proposal to implement the CAB in Meghalaya while exempting other northeastern states that have the Inner Line Permit (ILP) is not a good gesture and carries the message of dividing the tribal communities in the region,” Khongwir had argued. (Source – The Telegraph)

This is why anti-CAB protests have seen participation from groups such as North East Students Organisation (NESO), Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisation (CoMSO), Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), North East Forum for Indigenous People (NEFIP) and the Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal Immigrants (JCPI).

Chief criticisms of CAB

BJP’s 2014 manifesto had promised to give Hindu refugees shelter, something that was marketed to the electorate as a noble endeavour, which it appears to be on the surface. But dig a little deeper and the flaws are as glaring as the devious agenda behind it.

If CAB aims to provide shelter to Hindu refugees, the why wasn’t Sri Lanka included in the list of countries from where India would welcome refugees? It is no secret that Tamils still face persecution in Sri Lanka despite the civil war having ended a decade ago. While over 2 lakh Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were welcomed into India in the 80s and the 90s, many of them were forced to live in refugee camps and not offered citizenship even after spending close to 30 years in India!

A demand to grant citizenship to these refugees was raised previously by political heavyweights like M Karunanidhi, and even backed by Art of Living founder Ravi Shankar. The demand got a shot in the arm when it was raised in the Rajya Sabha as recently as July 2019. Therefore, not including Sri Lanka in the list of countries from where refugees facing religious persecution will be welcomes appears to be more than just oversight. Are some Hindu lives not as valuable as others? 

Let us now talk about persecuted Muslim minorities. It is no secret that Ahmedi Muslims have been targeted in Pakistan. While, CAB provides for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, this glaring omission of Muslim refugees facing religious persecution reeks of the Indian regime’s anti-Muslim agenda.

Similarly, the Rohingya refugee crisis shows how Muslim from the Arakan province of Myanmar were forced to flee their homes. About 40,000 of them made their way into India but have faced nothing but hostility and the treat of deportation looming over them every day.   

Then there is the problem of documentation. Many people, especially those from historically oppressed, marginalized or economically weak backgrounds do not have adequate documentary evidence of citizenship. In fact, AADHAAR was brought about to solve this very problem… giving people a basic identity document! But when animals, deities and trees ended up with Aadhaar cards, this program also came under the scanner.

Moreover, as discovered during the NRC exercise in Assam, rural married women are the worst affected as they are seldom born in hospitals or sent to school. They find it difficult to defend their citizenship and are perhaps the most vulnerable. Toothless grandmothers were considered ‘infiltrators’ and left to rot in detention camps after being declared ‘foreigners’!

Where do political parties stand?

The BJP has made its stand clear. It wants CAB as a precursor to an exercise modelled along the lines of Assam’s recently concluded National Register of Citizens (NRC). Its allies such as AIADMK, BJD, Akali Dal et all appear to be on board. But AGP could be perched precariously on the precipice of political annihilation for their support of CAB.

The Congress has announced that it will fight CAB ‘tooth and nail’. DMK, SP, BSP, RJD, NCP and AAP have also expressed strong opposition to CAB. AITC chief Mamata Banerjee remains a vocal opponent of CAB.

The Shiv Sena has not made their stand official yet and Uddhav Thackeray is expected to make an announcement of Monday.

Will Indian citizens and their elected representatives allow the CAB juggernaut to keep gaining momentum as we essentially legitimize alienation of minorities? We cannot be blind to the fact that we are hurtling down into the pits of hell, where all that will be left eventually, are mountains upon mountains of ashes… for we would have burnt down the idea of India.

The post The true cost of hailing the CAB appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The proposed Citizenship amendment bill is an assault on the Constitution of India which does not base our citizenship on our religious or caste identities. On the one hand, the government says that it want to welcome people living in Islamic countries but immediately suggest that Muslims are not wanted. If makes a clear assumption that all the Muslims living in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are happier because they have a ‘Islamic’ government very much like all the ‘Hindus’ in India are happy with the BJP ascendancy in power. Or else even if they are not, India is no place for them.

The amendments also imply that all the non Muslims in these countries are not happy there and have no constitutional guarantee. It is true that in the South Asian neighborhood most are majoritarian societies (like us!)  and there are ‘extra-state’ actors of the majoritarian communities which are beyond the control of the government everywhere including in India. We know very well who such forces are in India, those who have no care for our constitution and have violated it most of the time without being penalised.

What started from the North East has now been imposed on the whole country. The issue in Assam and other part of North East was never communal but a sense that genuine demographic changes in these states were taking place. This was during the post 1971 period after the Bangladesh war but दो projected as such by chauvinist forces, this was never due to Muslim population. The Assam agitation even at its height, started by movement like All Assam Student Union and All Assam Gan Sangram Parishad was not outrightly communal.  The agitation was against illegal infiltrators which any country or state has when the situation goes out of hand.

The infiltrators were not merely Muslims, a majority of them were Bengali Hindus. There is no doubt a fact that minorities in our neighborhood lived a difficult life and laws like the Blasphemy laws have been used against minorities to compel them leave their spaces or business.

Indian state have always played dangerous games in dealing with ‘refugees’ and their ‘settlement’ which has resulted in tensions in many places. In the partition era, Bengali Hindus and Sikhs were settled in those places which were adivasi areas resulting in misuse of resources and illegal land grab of the Adivasi land. Take the case of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Khiri and Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand which have a huge Sikh population. Frankly speaking a majority of them got settled here in the aftermath of partition but slowly the powerful among them used the politeness and simplicity of the Adivasis to grab their land. The result is that there is a complete demographic change in these regions and most of the adivasi land has been grabbed by the power elite among these Sikhs. Most of the Adivasis like Tharus and Boxas in these Tarai region have become landless in their own homeland.

The Bengali Namashudra community was initially settled in Dandkarnaya region, which was in Chhattishgarh which neither had their culture nor language. Ultimately all of them went to Bengal and got settled in Sundarvan region or Marichjhaapi. There too, the Bengali Bhadralok refugees got land in prime locations in  Kolkata or even in Delhi but the Dalits were given land in far away places.

The demography of Tripura changed and the indigenous people became a minority there in their own region. Can you imagine that Tripura’s political dominance is in the hands of non indigenous people!

Look at Jharkhand, an Adivasi state which has now more of a non Adivasi population and non Adivasi chief minister. Uttarakhand’s non hills district will dominate the politics in future as their population is growing at a much faster rate while the hills have negative population growth. Moreover, industries and business of the outsiders now dominate the hill district of Uttarakhand. Soon, the non Uttarakhandi’s will dominate the state politics and culture.

Even if you open up India’s space for outsiders, we wish to know as where does Indian state want to ‘settle’ the refugees or those who want to come to India ? Indian government has already assured the North Eastern States that it wont settle them in these regions as their MPs raised concern. Will Himachal and Uttarakhand also raise the same issue ? Will these state accept huge chunks of refugees ? If yes, wont there be a demographic change in these states ? Why should we allow this, whether Hindus or Muslim or any one else.

Indian citizenship does not discriminate on the basis of religion. Nowhere in the world is this kind of discrimination. Once you are an Indian citizen, you are Indian. Indian government cannot bring all Hindus from all over the world and take care of them. This is absolutely horrendous.

Does the current regime think that these issues did not crop up during the partition?  In fact, there were lots of these issues and discussions. Why should India think that all the Hindus world over have fundamental right to settle in India just because it is their ‘fatherland’, as espoused by Savarkar?

So, those who lived here for centuries will be hounded out while those who are citizens of other countries are being brought here. Will that not create a crisis here ? Does the government think that merely being Hindu is enough ? How does government settle them and how will the local population take them. Will they be settled in Punjab or Haryana or Uttar Pradesh or Delhi?

If the government is suggesting that ‘Indian’  doors open on an individual basis then why cant the basis be of the relationship with India and not religion-based?  The contents of the current bill is against the spirit of the constitution and has a one point agenda to harass the Muslim citizens of the country. It is sad how the current regime is working on this design which diverts our attention from the real issues of economic recession, unemployment, climate change. Returning all the time to its favourite pass-time of Muslim bashing.

Perhaps the government has not read up on minority rights and its international laws. Every modern progressive country respect its minorities and feel proud of them. Many of the non native Hindus have prime ministers and president of various countries and we feel proud of them. India too had that approach and we are immensely proud of those Indian leaders who might not have been brahmanical Hindus but of other faiths and contributed for our country.

It would have been better if India took a lead on minority Rights issues globally but then for that we needed to have moral high ground and our own track record. It is deeply disturbing that rather than introspecting on its fault line, the BJP leaders continue to think that they can get rich dividend in elections due politics of polarisation and creation of an anti Muslim climate all over the country.

All political parties must stand together and oppose this bill which divide us deeply. It is not the duty of the Muslims to fight for their rights but all of us, Indian citizens who must stand together and speak up against such a discriminatory bill.

It appears as if our role models are not Germany, France or UK but Saudi Arabia, Taliban or other countries which are theocratic states. Fact of the matter is, many of the middle eastern countries are changing and accepting diversity. Hindi has become second language of administration in Abu Dhabi court. Oman recently got a Hindu temple and Indians are welcomed in all these middle eastern countries who give us employment not by seeing our religion but our capacities and qualities. I

Isnt it ironical, that India which started with strong secular socialist foundations today is turning to those outdated and tainted ideas which have been rejected by countries suffering due to theocracy and discriminatory laws.

We hope the Supreme Court will take cognizance of these bills when they become law and stand up for a vibrant and robust democracy and not those ideas which takes us towards brahmanical theocracy, for which India has already paid huge price.

It is time that political parties speak up against this bill apart from the legal luminaries who can challenge this in the court of law. Indians need to unite against a power which want to thrive on our divisions and deviate from the real issues so that it can ‘silently’ sale off all our ‘resources’ to its favorite cronies.

The post CAB 2019 is not just Unconstitutional, it is meant to create communal divides appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On December 3, Ravikumar D, of DMK asked the Ministry of Home Affairs if they had any pla to grant citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees who are living in India for more than 30 years. The Ministry, however, responded saying that, “Indian Citizenship can be acquired by any foreigner by registration under section 5 or by naturalization under section 6 of The Citizenship Act, 1955. However, an illegal migrant is not eligible to acquire citizenship by registration or naturalization.”

The latter part of this answer is set to change if the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) gets passed in the Parliament. The Bill seeks to grant citizenship to Non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, if they have faced religious persecution. Sri Lankan Tamils also clear the ‘religious persecution’ filter but they do not feature in the inclusion list for grant of citizenship, even on communal lines.

Between 1983 and 1987 crossed the Palk Strait and entered India to run away from the civil war in Sri Lanka. Presently, more than 60,000 refugees stay in 109 camps in Tamil Nadu alone. Although Sri Lankan government eased repatriation of refugees, very few have gone back. Hardly 9,000 refugees have gone back to Sri Lanka and for good reason. They have been provided by the state government with relief measures, better livelihood opportunities which has led to improvement in their lifestyle and they are aware that back home, in Sri Lanka, they will not enjoy such opportunities.

Hence, voluntary repatriation is an option open for these refugees but neither governments are actively involved in prompting refugees to return. On the other hand, if these refugees do not wish to go back, they are likely to remain stateless in India as per provisions of the impending Citizenship Amendment Bill and NPR (National Population Register) exercise.

Related:
The Great Indian ‘CAB’cophony
Union Cabinet Clears Citizenship Amendment Bill
Why Opp MPs Strongly Dissented against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 and How
Anti-NRC sentiment now turns to target NPR: Bengal
Assam simmers over CAB, protests spill over to Manipur too
AAMSU expresses concerns on all India NRC, CAB and clause 6 of Assam Accord
The forgotten people: on Sri Lankan refugees

The post Sri Lankan refugees, the persecuted people that CAB is forgetting appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In all the pandemonium surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Bill, specially with widespread protests in the north-east region of the country, the Cabinet has reportedly, cleared the new Citizenship Amendment Bill today. 

The government expects CAB to be passed by the Parliament before December 10. The Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, has asked all BJP MPs to ensure that they remain present in the House when the Home Minster, Amit Shah take it up in the Parliament, to ensure it gets maximum votes for getting passed.

About the bill

The Bill proposes to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.This was proposed to be done by inserting a new proviso to Section 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act 1955.As per PTI, the bill is likely to be tabled in the Parliament in the next two days.

The Citizenship Act as it exists today does not recognize claims of illegal migrants for Indian citizenship. The bill which was introduced in January proposed to relax the condition for acquiring citizenship by naturalization for non-Muslim migrants from the aforementioned countries. It proposed that the requisite period of 11 years of residence in the country be reduced to 6 years for these migrants, by inserting a proviso clause (d) in the Third Schedule of the Act.

Bill redrafted

The bill’s former version of was passed by Lok Sabha in January this year but the bill lapsed as the Lok Sabha dissolved due to forthcoming General elections. Hence, it was expected that there may be changes in the bill especially considering the protests around the bill in the north-east.

Recently it was reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had invited the Chief Ministers of north-eastern States and leaders of socio-cultural bodies, students’ organisations and political parties for discussions on the plan to amend the Citizenship Act. These discussions took place on November 29 and November 30.

At this meeting, Amit Shah agreed to make some changes in the bill and assuredcivil society groups and political representatives that ethno-cultural concerns of all stakeholders in the North-East would be addressed, and that the Bill would provide protection to such regions and states where the Inner Line Permit (ILP) is applicable, and autonomous administration has been granted under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

The Defence Minister’s ‘defence’

Rajnath Singh is reportedly defending the contentious bill by saying that BJP has always worked to unite the nation and has rejected criticism that the bill is against principles of secularism as enshrined in the Preamble of our Constitution. Rajnath Singh has said that the countries — Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — are predominantly Islamic nations and India wants to offer citizenship to those who face religious persecution there.

All these defences are invalid because all the contentions raised by the opposition parties hold true as the bill does in fact and in spirit abrogate the principles of secularism as enshrined in our Constitution and it does reek of the pro Hindutva mandate of the ruling party. One can only hope that an anti-secular bill such as this, meets with heavy opposition in the Rajya Sabha to the least, where the NDA is in minority and some necessary changes are made to it. Or it is stalled altogether. 

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Continuing its vociferous protests against the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Sunday slammed Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal for not opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill like his Meghalaya and Nagaland counterparts. “The chief ministers of neighbouring states like Meghalaya and Nagaland oppose the bill though these states enjoy special status. But the Assam chief minister is silent,” said AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi.

He said AASU leaders will meet Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday (December 3) to discuss the bill and convey their “strong” opposition. Shah is holding rounds of meetings with political and apolitical organisations from the Northeast on the bill before tabling it in Parliament.

The Northeast had witnessed a series of protests last year against the bill. The AASU and other constituent organisations of the North East Students’ Organisations (Neso) had spearheaded the movement across the region.

Meanwhile, agitation mounted in Manipur, too as protesters threatened to continue agitation if the Citizenship bill is passed in parliament. Members of the Manipur People Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (MANPAC) met chief minister N. Biren Singh at 4pm on Sunday.

They firmly stated that the citizenship bill cannot be applied to the Northeast and reaffirmed their stand that there would be no letup in their agitation if the bill was passed in Parliament. Manipur was one state that went unrepresented at the meeting with the union home minister. The organisation was peeved with Union home minister Amit Shah for not getting an invitation from the Centre to share its concern over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Assam

“If the Centre is thinking that it will be able to put the burden of illegal foreigners on us through the bill while offering implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord then it is wrong. We will not accept the bill,” said the general secretary of AASU. He added that the bill is unconstitutional and violates the secular character of the Constitution and the Assam Accord.

On the other hand, the students of Dibrugarh University in Upper Assam also joined the protests on Sunday. The students organised a protest and announced that they would not allow the political leaders supporting the bill to enter the university. On Saturday, students of Gauhati University and Cotton University hit the streets against the bill.

The students of Cotton University on Sunday protested in front of the head office of the AGP at Ambari here to vent their ire on the alleged indirect support by the regional party to the bill.

They burnt effigies of AGP leaders, including its president Atul Bora.“Through this protest we are warning the AGP leaders to be with the people of Assam. Otherwise, the people will give them a fitting reply,” said a protester. The protesters also met Assam PCC president Ripun Bora and leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia to voice their opposition to the bill.

AASU’s Duliajan unit also took out a bike rally on Sunday in protest against the citizenship bill. The protesters took part in the rally as part of the joint protests with 30 other organizations against the bill in the state.
 

Anti-CAB lobby meets Biren: Manipur

Emerging out of the chief minister’s secretariat on Sunday, MANPAC convener Yumnamcha Dilipkumar said: “We met the chief minister and told him that the state government should put up strong resistance and tell the Centre that under no circumstances the bill can be applied to the Northeast.” “Biren Singh said Shah had asked him about the possibility of impact of the bill if it is introduced in the state. The state government also urged him to insert a clause or sort out a mechanism to protect Manipur from the bill.”

“We feel that at such a crucial juncture — when the bill is going to be tabled for discussion in Parliament during its ongoing winter session — not inviting us to the meeting tantamount to violation of legitimate rights of the people. Even if the bill is passed, we will stick to our stand and continue the agitation,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the MANPAC held a meeting of 88 consultant partners in the group at Amuco office to discuss future course of action and made a representation to Biren Singh in the evening. They resolved to take appropriate action after consulting other stakeholders in the Northeast.
 

Exams postponed

The directorate of secondary education, Tripura, has postponed the pre-board exams of classes X and XII in schools under the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council in view of the bandh called by Tipraland State Party (TSP) on Monday, seeking scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

A notification issued on Saturday by director of secondary education, Tripura, U.K. Chakma, said: “In view of the bandh called by a regional political party on Monday in areas under the TTAADC , it is hereby decided to reschedule the school-based examination to avoid any untoward incident.”

The English papers of classes X and XII are postponed to December 19 while the sociology and statistics exams of class IX students are deferred to December 6. All three papers were scheduled to be held on Monday from 11.30am to 2.30pm.

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The protests

It was reported that Under the leadership of AASU, the other organizations like Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), SMSS, North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) demonstrated in front of the collectorate at Hailakandi. Protests broke out in Barak valley, which is largely populated by Bengali Hindu population and also in the Brahmaputra valley in lower Assam.

Apart from Guwahati, All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Garo Students’ Union (GSU), Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), Twipra Student Federation (TSF), All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) held protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in other states of the North Eastern region. Reportedly, they have even submitted a memorandum to the PMO and the Home Ministry against the bill, through the governor of each state.

Akhil Gogoi, who led the protests for KMSS said that if the bill is passed then about 1.90 crore Hindu Bangladeshis will come to Assam leading to a demographic disturbance in the state.

The winter session of Assam Assembly has also begun this week and it was off to a rough start as members of opposition Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) staged a walk out in protest against the citizenship amendment bill. Their stand is that the bill will violate the Assam Accord and the historical document will be rendered meaningless.

The “stakeholders” meeting

The protests clearly indicated that all is not well in the North-east region since the protesting bodies have a united front undivided on communal lines, which is always a threat from the BJP. To salvage the situation, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has invited the Chief Ministers of north-eastern States and leaders of socio-cultural bodies, students’ organisations and political parties for discussions on the plan to amend the Citizenship Act. The discussions are scheduled to take place on November 29 and November 30. Reportedly, the meetings with the Chief Ministers will be held on November 30.

BJP’s concerted communal efforts in Assam

Now that winter session has started in Assam, the state government is set to present empirical data on the number of Hindu Bengalis whose names have been excluded from the final NRC which was released on August 31. The BJP leader in Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said that this is being done so that they can ascertain how many people will hence be eligible to apply for citizenship once the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB)  is passed in the Parliament. In support of CAB he said, “if these people are kept on (sic) being excluded, many Assembly constituencies might go to the hands of other people. So, in the interest of Assamese people, we need CAB.”

Meanwhile the people in Assam, especially the ones who are in the process of proving their citizenship in Foreigners tribunals are naturally harrowed. When Amit Shah said in the Parliament that there will be a nation-wide NRC he specifically mentioned that NRC will take place in Assam again. The common sentiment amongst Assamese people remains, “How many times do we have to prove our citizenship?”

Also Read
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Guwahati, November 29, 2019: The proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill -2019 (CAB, 2019 is causing shock waves, disturbing the socio-political situation in north-east India. Since the statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 18 in Parliament where he said not only that CAB will be passed in the present session of Parliament but also that (a fresh) NRC will be implemented in the state of Assam along with other parts of India, huge discontent has broken out.

Soon after the statement of Union Home Minister, the BJP-ruled governments of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, declared their opposition to these moves and clarified that Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur will not take any responsibility for the implementation of CAB in their States. Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, which have the government of NEDA (North-East Democratic Alliance), a regional alliance of the BJP in the North-East, has also declared its opposition to the proposed CAB and refused implementation of the bill if it becomes law, in their state.

In Assam too, several organisations, including AASU (All Assam Students’ Union), otherwise having cordial relationship with BJP, have launched massive protests meetings across the state against CAB. The Left-Democratic Front, Congress and KMSS too have started various protest meetings against CAB all over Assam. Intellectuals of the State and various other organisations have also joined in the vocal opposition to CAB.

Assam, in fact, witnessed unprecedented protests within the Assam Assembly on its first day of winter session of the legislative assembly. Just after the assembly met and four of its newly elected members took over oath of office, the Indian National Congress (INC) MLA, Wazed Ali Choudhury raised an adjournment motion demanding an urgent discussion on CAB. When the Speaker Hitendra Nath Gaswami, rejected the demand, wanting to hear views on the admissibility of the motion, the Congress and AIUDF MLAs went to the well and started shouting slogans in support of their demand. When the speaker tried to pacify them, the Congress MLAs lay down in the well. In this situation of chaos, the speaker tried to run the house, even while the Congress MLA’s continued staging their demonstration in the well of the house. This continued for about half an hour. At that point the Congress MLAs walked out the house and staged demonstration at the entrance of the assembly. The Congress MLAs remained in ‘sleeping protest’ at the entrance of the Assembly and continued sloganeering against the Government and CAB. Speaking to Sabrang India, the Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed said, “Congress has created history today. The opposition besieged the entrance of the ruling party for more than half an hour. The Speaker didn’t allow us to speak in the Assembly, but everyone has heard the voice of our opposition to CAB, which is against the spirit of our Constitution, against Assam and the people of Assam.”

While the Assembly was witnessing these scenes of high drama around CAB, hundreds of supporters of the Left-Democratic Mancha, a united platform of 10 political parties in Assam including CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), RCPI, RSP, Forward Block, Janata Dal (Secular), Asom Sangrami Mancha, staged a sit-in demonstration at Dispur Last Gate.

Unfazed by the protests, Assam’s strongman and finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sharma defended the Modi government’s move to re-introduce CAB. He said, “The CAB will be passed for the greater interest of Assamese People. There is opposition in some of the North-Eastern States, which will be shorted out. There will be series of meetings in New Delhi on November 29 and 30, 2019, where this will happen. Biswas said that at these series of meetings, the union Home Ministry will talk to all chief ministers, all nationalist organisations of the region, where all of their concerns will be dealt with comprehensively. ”

Meanwhile, several North-Easten Chief Minister, heads of various Political Parties, non-Political Organisations of North-East, have been invited by union home minister, Amit Shah to have discussions on CAB.

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Pratidin Sangbad, November 27 reports at the growing unrest all over Assam. On November 18, union home minister Amit Shah declared in Parliament that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be implemented across the country, including in Assam (again). He also stated that that the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) would also be passed in the current session of Parliament.

Protests have broken out not just in Assam but all over the North East after these twin declarations, including the Barak Valley. The Barak Valley is largely populated by Bengali Hindu population in Assam and the area has been a fertile base in the past for the. The Barak Valley has 14 assembly constituency of which 9 are dominated by the BJP, 3 AIUDF and 2 by Congress. Out of 2 parliamentary constituencies both are with the by BJP at present. The CAB is all set to be passed targeting the Bengali Hindu voters. However, things are not that simple: the Bengali Hindu Voters of Barak Valley are not accepting the much-debated CAB, because of its nature.     

On November 22, 2019, prominent peasantry organisations of Assam, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and many other outfits staged protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill and marched to Raj Bhawan in Guwahati, Assam. Before and after this protest march several other protest meetings have also been organised all over the state. In these protest meetings the attendees have shouted slogans against Modi Government with a demand to withdraw the bill. Akhil Gogoi even said that if the bill is passed then about 1.90 crore Hindu Bangladeshis will come to Assam leading to a demographic disturbance in the state.

On November 27, 2019 a massive protest was carrying out by KMSS, AAMSU and NESO in Hailakandi, Silchar. Not only in Brahmaputra valley but also in the Barak Valley all are carrying the protest for the nation and state. Under the leadership of AASU, the other organizations demonstrated in front of the collectorate at Hailakandi. The organisations were AASU, KMSS, SMSS, NESO etc. That morning, a huge number of members from various organisations gathered in Hailakandi, holding many placards against the bill. Amzad Hussain (president AASU in Hailakandi), general secretary, Mehbub Alom Choudhury, organising secretary, Surjit Sarma Majumdar, Saddam Hussain Laskar, advisor Naharujjaman Choudhury, panchayat president Uaidulla Barbhuyan, general secretary AAMSU, Fairuj Zaman, in Hailakandi expressed the view that if the Citizenship Amendment bill passed, Assam would become a grazing field of Bangladeshis. Over 90% people of the state are against the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill. In the protest meeting various sections of people have participated, including a number of Bengali Hindus. The situation is proving embarrassing for local BJP leaders. 

The news clipping may be read here:

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