Blog#2-NRC- To be Proven or Unproven

The intellectual denizens of our country are busy evaluating the 2020 Fiscal budget, a lacklustre record breaking speech which led to the sole analysis of the individual income tax structure. What it has atleast done is that it stole the thunder for a few weeks from the most debated topic for the last 2 months, the NRC!!

My first blog delved on the aspects of the CAA but its seems the linkage between that and the NRC doesn’t seem to wane off. The intellectuals of India are steadfast in promoting their interpretation since as they say “ perception is such a unsurmountable barrier that it starts and ends with bigotry.”

CAA has now become the fashionable protests of the elite, the intellectuals, the so called liberals and has also roped in the student population. Is it a repetition of the most popular student movement in India, The Assam Movement? Doesn’t seem like. The prominent universities of India like the JNU (of which even i am an alumnus although through one of the best campuses in Asia, The National Defence Academy) have become enrolment centres of protests. It seems students don’t join them for pursuing academic interests but to gain prominence through their memberships in public protests and ancillary bodies.

The entire foundation of the linkage between CAA & NRC is the protection of the rights of so called minorities in India and mainly that of Indian Muslims who ironically are not threatened by either. What is being forgotten is that Article 29 of the Constitution of India protects the interests of a sub section of citizens with a distinct cultural and linguistic identity by granting them a right to protect their language, script and culture. That’s innate pluralism. Article 30 of the Constitution empowers the minorities with a right to set up their own educational institutions but the majority does not have the right to do so. If cultural, linguistic identity defines a minority then even the practitioners of Hindu religion basis language, script and culture could be divided into several minority groups! No one seem to be bothered on this distinction.

The situation in the country today is simmering on the protective discrimination by the CAA which actually was proposed in 2003 and was presided over by establishment of a committee comprising of current members of opposition who seem to have forgotten their own recommendations. The leftists including their eminent leaders like Prakash Karat had in 2012 sent a letter to then PM of India imploring the govt to take steps to stop the persecution faced by minorities in islam dominated Bangladesh. Thats bigotry. The shaheen bagh ‘sit in’ in New Delhi is all about speeches of division of India and the extent of radicalisation is visible through the slogans chanted by children and their mothers ( however I condemn the shooter episode and the slogans. There are nutjobs on both sides of any issue always). It’s a ticking time bomb if not controlled now.

Now coming to the NRC. Why is it required? The situation of illegal immigration has taken a new dimension. In Bangladesh by 2050, 17% of its land mass shall get submerged leading to displacement of 18 Mn people which can also increase to 50 Mn in totality. Where shall they turn towards? India and its porous borders is the most obvious answer. NRC is an important step to support and protect the demographic unity of India. The first pilot of NRC was conducted between 2003-2009 which further was attempted in 2010 in the border states. This means its not a new process and has been considered from the time of creation of the first register in 1951. The need for it now cannot be more significant.

The govt has yet not published the structure or the operating process of this exercise but the SCARE MONGERING is at its peak!!The only precedence is the NRC process of Assam where 33 Mn people applied and out of which 31 Mn were found eligible. The balance of 1.9 Mn shall have to approach the foreigner tribunal for resolutions. However, this result of 1.9 Mn people being ineligible is being touted as failure of the process, whereas the lack of documentation amongst these people that they could not produce is not being questioned. The perception that is being created is that the documentation required is too archaic and leads to harassment of the citizens. Well, lets look at the document lists published by govt of India for Assam and endorsed by Supreme Court of India. It consists of List A and List B. The lists in themselves are so exhaustive that you would question the disposition of an individual who does not have any of them. Even the persecuted minorities under the CAA have to submit a list of documents to prove that they were persecuted minorities. They would also have to conform to the norms of FRO over and above the List A and B. But there is so much of hyperventilation on the sword that hangs over without even knowing the process that shall be followed.

Our longstanding neighbour, Pakistan relentlessly is trying to influence the people within India and now some parts of world of the Nazism which is taking shape here. The irony of it seems to be lost that a country famous for religious persecution is blaming a country which is coming out with a legislation to protect religious minorities.

The process of NRC is not new to nations of the world. In a different form it’s part of the electoral voter registration process in the US before any Presidential election. Their strict immigration process and the social security database acts as an aid to the process. The ideal state of Singapore regularly conducts a registration of their citizens and permanent residents. The last was conducted in November 2019 for those who were born between 01 Oct 2002 and 01 Jan 2003. A country which boasts an equal population like India which is China has been historically conducting these registrations under a process of household registration called ‘Hukou’. But it seems parts of the world namely the EU have a problem with India conducting one, which is the latter’s internal political matter.

In the end let me leave you with a thought to what extent should an issue be debated………The original document written as a constitution of India had a painting of Lord Ram at the head of the page which spoke about ‘Fundamental Rights’. An attempt to say that the fundamental rights to a citizen emboldens him or her to do the right thing in conduct and follow the example set by Lord Ram in our mythological history. It’s the same document which protects the rights of every minority and sub group through Article 14, 29 and 30. If the constitution were to be written today will the leftists and so called liberals allow for such depiction or raise it as an un secular move?!! Are we ignoring and discounting the vast history and traditions of one of the oldest living civilisations of mankind. That by me is intellectual skullduggery!

Jai Hind!!

Source credits: Opinion by J Sai Deepak, Advocate , The Supreme Court of India; Office of state coordinator of National registration of Assam