India Hindsa Bharat: CAA , CAB , NRC and the People

The political discourse does not depend on facts and figures. Political groups can spin stories, dig in past and thanks to social media and WhatsApp University, an army of youth can be created as foot soldiers on any narrative, and even falsehood. After the bitter spell of post 1935 discourse, post-Mandal narrative, India is witnessing a new dawn in post-2014 public discourse. Its pathetic that secularism, progress, values, integrity, morality which is not only required for a particular group, but all groups have given way to regressive ideas, hate, majoritarianism and divisive agenda and Islamophobia. Western world realised the perils of hate, anti-Semitism after world War II, and US realised this threat after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. India, sadly have not been able to tame and control hate, communalism, divisive agents, even after three nations--Myanmar (1935), Pakistan (1947) and Bangladesh (1971) were born out of what was United India! In post-1947 India, PM Indira Gandhi, former PM Rajiv Gandhi, CM Beant Singh were victim of terror and hate

Indian Parliament has passed NAA -2019, in December 2019. The Act singles out Muslims from the list of prosecuted people, who are 'illegal Migrants', and shuts door for them. The idea of welcoming all non-Muslim illegal migrants is devoid of rationale and reason. Muslims are one of the prosecuted group in China (Ulghyur), Pakistan(Mohajir, Baloch, Ahmediya), Bangladesh(Urdu Speaking Muslims), Afghanistan(Hazara, Tajik), Myanmar(Rohingyas), Sri Lanka, and Maldives. Even Tamil Hindus, who are calling for separate Tamil Land in Sri Lanka are victims. Despite such facts, the CAA is enacted. And then it is also announced that 'NRC is coming', and it is repeatedly told that all except Muslims will be given Citizenship. So, this is in opposition to the what is the slogan ' Sabka Sath, Sabka Viikas'. Where it began?

Lets go back and find out. Muslims comprise 34% of Assam’s population. This has been the envy of the right wing groups and political parties for decades. It has been exploited by AASU/ AGP, and ULFA to target people. The right wing radical groups and political party turned the issue of illegal migrants into a communal one by promising citizenship to Hindu migrants, and denying the same to Muslim migrants. It led to huge electoral gains for the right wing groups and catapulted the right wing to power in Assam. Independent observers believe that NRC, CAA is aimed to reduce influence of Muslims as a political group.

Some Party promised that only it can stop Assam going ‘Jinnah’s way’ by implementing NRC and amending the Citizenship Act. Since then, the government at the Centre and in the State has been working in unison to deprive large number of Muslims of citizenship and to fulfil what it calls halting rise of Muslim population in Assam. In the list published on 31 August 2019, around 19 Lakh are not mentioned. In India, Lakhs of people are facing a dark future as their names have been omitted from the NRC. Some of these people, say 40-50 per cent, may regain their citizenship if they are not Muslims, as the new Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill), 2019 stipulates. The twin issues of NRC and CAB/ CAA 2019 is a contested issue in Assam, as Hindu migrants and Muslim migrants from Bangladesh are being treated unequally despite being equals.

The right wing came to power in 2016, promising the deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. They also promised to give citizenship to Hindu refugees, and made the citizenship issue communal by denying the same to the Muslims to further the Majoritarian agenda. What is NRC?

National Register of Citizens (NRC)

The first NRC was published in 1951 by recording particulars of all the persons. The current process of updating the NRC is the result of a 2009 PIL filed in the Supreme Court by NGO, Assam Public Works (APW). The APW claimed that 4.1 million illegal Bangladeshis had found their way into Assam’s voter list. Till 2019, the state has identified 1,13,738 individuals as D-Voters.

NRC is a roster of all those who settled in Assam up to the midnight of March 24, 1971. The Assam Accord mandated that those who settled in the state after the cut off date of March 24, 1971 would be weeded out and stripped of citizenship rights. The Supreme Court ordered the Assam government to update the NRC by a deadline and monitored its progress. The first draft of the roster was published on 30 July, 2018.

The Supreme Court ordered Assam government to update the NRC by a deadline and monitored its progress. Subsequently, the first draft of the roster was published on 30 July, 2018.

1. The Decision to Update the 1951 NRC At midnight on August 15, 1985, when the All Assam Student Union (AASU), the Government of the state of Assam and the central Government of India signed the Assam Accord. On May 5, 2005 a decision to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951, pursuant to the section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (Annexure-I), and Rule 4A of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National identity cards) Rules, 2003 was taken.

in June 2010, a pilot project was carried out in Barpeta (Barpeta district), and Chaygaon, (Kamrup district). The pilot project was stopped, after a protest march by All Assam Minority Student Union on July 21, 2010.

About 68 lakhs families comprising 3.29 crores applicants have applied for inclusion of their name in the NRC.

There is no definition of Original Inhabitant (OI) either in the Citizenship Rule, 2003, the Citizenship Act, 1955, or in the Constitution of India. The NRC authority has carried out the process of identification and segregation of OI arbitrarily. A specific Application Receipt Number (ARN) has been issued against each household who have applied for registration in the NRC. There are many instances of mismatching of names lodged against the ARN. As a result, a sizeable number of applicants have been dropped out in the complete draft of NRC.

Following points are matter of concern need genuine consideration:

A. The NRC authority has failed to publish the prescribed documents, including the NRC 1951 and the voters’ lists up to 1971 in full form.

B. The NRC authority has failed to make the verification process free of arbitrariness.

C. The findings of the Family Tree verification have been used in a one-sided manner.

D. The NRC updation procedure is not error-free.

E. About 400 thousand applicants have failed to submit their claims.

F. There is a sizeable number of “doubtful” voters who have been marked “D”

G. Acquisition of citizenship by birth has not been enforced for applications filed by the descendants of persons who had been declared foreigners, and cases are pending before the Foreigners Tribunals.

H. The case of poor and illiterate people with no documents to prove their citizenship.

The NRC update exercise in Assam, began in September 2015 under the Congress government in the state, following the Supreme Court’s instructions. The NRC, first published after the 1951 Census, is now being updated keeping 24 March 1971 as the cut-off to essentially identify those who entered Assam illegally from Bangladesh after that date. Applicants have to submit documents to prove that their names appeared in the NRC of 1951, or in any of the electoral rolls of Assam until 1971, or in any of 12 other documents, issued before 1971.

The first draft of the updated National Register of Citizens was released on 31 December 2017 and the apex court directed the government to complete the whole process by 30 June 2018. An updated version is expected by August 31, 2019.

FEAR

The indigenous Assamese people feel the immigrants, will reduce them to a minority in their own land. But migration to Assam has been there for centuries. British occupied Assam in 1826, they imported Bangla-speakers for clerical work from West Bengal. Many labourers also migrated to work in tea gardens. In the 20^th century, there was ‘Grow More Food’ campaign, which also resulted in large number of Bengali peasants settling in Assam. It is assumed that there has been an increase in the population of Assam after 1906, and mostly it has been Assamese vs. Bengali. However, there has been attempts by vested interests to blame Muslims. This has been fuelled by colonial history of Edward Gait, which was published in 1906. However, this view is considered biased and is contested and countered by others.

Historian of Assamese origin Yasmin Saikia says, ‘Today, in place of history, Muslims have become a political category. The spectral haunting of the alien ‘Bangladeshis’ who are deemed the representatives of the Muslim problem in Assam is generating fear, distrust and even hatred’ .[1] There has been lot of disinformation with regard to the origin of Muslims of Assam. Yasmin Saikia writes, ‘The current politics of excising the Muslims from the Axamia community transforms them into the Other. The Muslims of Assam are a composite community constituted by at least four different groups: Muslim-Axamia (also called Goriya, Tholua or Khilonjia), Bengali speaking or Bhotia, up-country or Juluha (from UP and Bihar), and immigrant Muslims, referred to as Miya. The history of these diverse communities is important to know because they are a window to understanding Assam's composite culture created by Hindu, Muslim, Ahom, and many other groups that call themselves Axamia’.[2]

Yasmin blames Colonial Historian Edward Gait and his History of Assam (1906) for giving a wrong narrative of the Muslims in the state. She says, ‘ The "othering" of Muslims happened in the colonial period.The colonial government's greed for revenue collection encouraged migration from Bengal for increasing agricultural productivity, which, in turn, changed the demographic composition of Assam’[3].

About the origin, She further says, 'Muslim settlement in Assam followed multiple pathways over eight centuries. Further, the conversion of the Kamata ruler, Chakradhvaj (1455-1485) to Islam provided new fillip. Muslim are called Bongals or Goriya and they lived in the midst of other groups in the Ahom kingdom. She also talks of her own family as an example of assimilation in Assam. She says, 'My father's family history is a case in point. The progenitor of the Saikia clan, Sheikh Azimuddin came from Delhi and was inducted into the service of the Ahom king through a land grant, title, and all its benefits in perpetuity. He became a Saikia and an Ahom noble in 1595. The Saikias, like other Muslim families who served the Ahom kings, are recorded, but several other unrecorded narratives of assimilation and integration also survive to this day'[4]. Despite the various narrative about the origin of Muslims in Assam, some sections continued to claim about the rise of Muslim population. After independence, such voices grew but were subdued in the name of integration. The Bangladesh creation in 1971 further provided fillip to such narrative against the rise of Muslim population in Assam. During 1970s, there was lot of noise about ‘illegal Bangladeshi’ migrants in Assam.

Assam Accord:

In 1978-79, local leaders complained about rapid increase in the number of Muslims in electoral rolls. It led to demand by various bodies, including AASU to check the electoral rolls, identify the foreigners, and publish revised voters list. The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) / AGP built their political fortune on the Assam Agitation against illegal immigrants. The six-year-long agitation, culminated in the signing of the tripartite Assam Accord by the AASU, the Central Government and the Assam government on August 14, 1985.

The accord fixed March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for the detection and expulsion of foreigners, illegal migrants irrespective of religion. It also called to seal the India-Bangladesh border to check illegal immigration. All Assam residents who had entered the state until January 1, 1966, would be deemed citizens. Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. It is agreed that the NRC of 1951 should be taken as the cut off for defining “Assamese people” eligible for the proposed safeguards. Those who came in between 1951 and 1971 are Indian citizens, but not indigenous people.

In 1987, the United Muslim Front (UMF) lodged complain against the state AGP government for carrying a false campaign in the name of ‘Bangladeshis’. The UMF presented data before the Central governmet to prove that the AGP agitation and its exercise lacked proof. It stated that of the 2,45,167 cases of suspected foreigners investigated by the police between December 1985 (AGP came to power) and January 1987, only 7,771 were forwarded to the tribunals. And only 528 persons were declared foreigners. "So where are the lakhs of foreigners the AGP has been shouting about?" the UMF asked.

On May 5, 2005, the three parties, AASU, the state Government and the central Government, held a meeting in New Delhi in connection with the implementation of the Assam Accord and agreed to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951. It has been an Assamese-Bengali conflict, and not a Hindu-Muslim one, that is at the core of the tension surrounding illegal immigrants in Assam. Those excluded from the NRC will not automatically become foreigners. They have to be so declared by an FT. Once declared foreigner by an FT, a person is sent to a detention centre. Assam has around six detention centres, which run out of district jails.

While the NRC is being updated, the Central Government has also amended the Citizenship Act, and the exercise is aimed to provide relief to non-Muslims and exclude Muslims.

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019 / CAA, 2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill of 2019 (CAB) has amended the Citizenship Act of 1955. Now its CAA, 2019. The CAA, 2019 Bill seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis migrating from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to India before December 31, 2014. Migrants from these communities were earlier given protection against legal action in the years 2015 & 2016 and long term visa provision was made for them. Citizenship will be given to them only after due scrutiny and recommendation of district authorities and the State Government. The minimum residency period for citizenship is 7 years.

As per the 1955 Act, for citizenship by naturalisation, an applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, and for 11 of the previous 14 years. A reading of the CAB does not throw light on the basis of creating a new group of intended beneficiaries for citizenship.

The Government does not seek or explain why or how non-inclusion of the Muslims in the classification of beneficiaries would not be discriminatory or violate Article 14. It ignores the point that Rohingyas in Myanmar, Ahmadias in Pakistan, Shia Muslims in Bangladesh, Hazaras in Afghanistan, and Sunnis in Iran are facing religious persecution. Indian Muslims who migrated to Pakistan also face persecution in Pakistan, and are called Mohajirs.

The Ministry of Home notification mentions "religious persecution" for creating a new group of beneficiaries. The refugees of Sri Lanka and Myanmar are excluded on the ground that such countries would be dealt with by the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued on 29 December, 2011. The SOP calls for giving Long Term Visa (LTV) after due security verification to people facing persecution on various grounds. It clearly shows different solution to the same problem.

The amendment in the Citizenship Act of 1955 is said to benefit more than 30,000 people belonging to the Non- Muslim minority groups, who are staying on Long Term Visa in India. Those seeking citizenship ‘will have to prove that they came to India due to religious persecution.’

Inequality?

In Assam, the CAB violates the Assam Accord of 1985 and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Both (Assam Accord and NRC) are religion agnostic and set the cut-off data at March 24, 1971 for being declared as a foreigner or claiming citizenship.

The bill is giving preference of citizenship on the basis of religion, which is against the tenets of Indian Constitution, and violates Article 14, which guarantees right to equality. The bill also contradicts the 1985 Assam Accord, which states that illegal immigrants coming from Bangladesh after 25 March 1971 would be deported irrespective of their religion. The CAB violates the right to equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution, which reads: "The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India."

The law will not be confined to the state of Assam but will also provide relief to persecuted migrants who have come through western borders of the country to states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh. The beneficiaries of Citizenship Amendment Bill can reside in any state of the country and the burden of those persecuted migrants will be shared by the whole country.

At least 46 organisations, including supporters of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) observed a 12-hour bandh across the State to protest against the Centre’s bid to amend the Citizenship Bill , during the Assam bandh in on October 23, 2018. The Assamese and other indigenous communities in Assam say that the Bill is against the spirit of the Assam Accord as well as the National Register of Citizens being updated.

The general sentiment in Assam with respect to the bill has been that it will defeat the purpose of the NRC. The Sentinel, a leading local daily, warned in its editorial on January 5 what the Assamese people think of the citizenship bill: ‘The perverse decision of the Centre to ram through the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 against the wishes of the people of Assam will result in the migration of millions of Bangladeshi Hindus to Assam’.

The BJP is clearly eyeing the votes of Bengali Hindus, who were once a Congress vote bank, comprising less than 10% of Assam’s population of 3.29-crore. Many Bengalis, however, feel the Bill will do them more harm than good, specifically if 1951 is taken as the base year by the Assam government for a move to define who are ‘Assamese’ and ensuring political, land and other rights for only “sons of the soil”.

Citizenship has been the biggest pain point of Assam's political and social life during the past several decades. In 2018, the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) left over 3 million people out of the roster. The citizenship bill and NRC, do feed into each other. Once the NRC is updated to draw up a list of “illegal immigrants” the government will be able to legitimise and give citizenship to all the Hindus (and other groups) identified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, while excluding the Muslims. It is this fear of being left out, being deprived out, which is haunting the Muslims of Assam. Are they Bangladeshis?

In 2016, inside the state Assembly, BJP MLA Ramakanta Deuri reportedly called his Congress colleague Sherman Ali “Bangladeshi”. Most of the Bengali-origin Muslim in Assam are afraid. One of them writes, ‘I also feel immense fear. when I first visited Guwahati. It was here that I first realised that I have another identity, a subordinate identity. I was a miya, a Bengali-origin Muslim, seen in Assam as an outsider, a suspected Bangladeshi’[5]. In Assam, the term “Miya” is used as a slur to brand Assamese Muslims of Bengali heritage as migrants from West Bengal, or worse, illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.[6]

M K Gandhi started his political career against the discrimination being faced by the Indian Community in South Africa, and it included the Asiatic Act. The Act violated the rights of the Indian and other Asian community and discriminated against them in South Africa. And its travesty of justice that in his own land, an issue of Stateless people has emerged as a threat to the Muslims. India's tradition of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" the world is one family, and ‘Atithi Deva Bhava (Guest is manifestation of god) is also being tested.

For Muslims in India, struggling for life with dignity and self-respect, the NRC and CAB 2019 are the latest challenges. It is to be seen, if the community can deal with the issue in coherent manner, or simply watch as History is being made by the Majoritarian government in implementing its core Hindutva Agenda and deprive the Muslims of its numbers strength in Assam.

[1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/northeast-india/muslims-of-assam-presentabsent-history/5C1FA887C07576F096D944405D206B9A / Yasmin Saikia, Arizona State University

[2]

NRC and Muslims

Muslims comprise 34% of Assam’s population. This has been the envy of the right wing groups and political parties for decades. It has been exploited by AASU/ AGP, and ULFA to target people. The RSS and BJP turned the issue of illegal migrants into a communal one by promising citizenship to Hindu migrants, and denying the same to Muslim migrants. It led to huge electoral gains for the right wing groups and catapulted the non-Congress to power in Assam.

The BJP promised that only it can stop Assam going ‘Jinnah’s way’ by implementing NRC and amending the Citizenship Act. Since then, the right wing government at the Centre and in the State has been working in unison to deprive large number of Muslims of citizenship and to fulfil what it calls halting rise of Muslim population in Assam.

In the list published on 31 August 2019, around 19In India, around 40 Lakh people are facing a dark future as their names have been omitted from the NRC. Some of these people, say 40-50 per cent, may regain their citizenship if they are not Muslims, as the new Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 stipulates. The twin issues of NRC and CAB 2019 is a contested issue in Assam, as Hindu migrants and Muslim migrants from Bangladesh are being treated unequally despite being equals.

The BJP came to power in 2016, promising the deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The BJP also promised to give citizenship to Hindu refugees, and made the citizenship issue communal by denying the same to the Muslims to further the Majoritarian agenda.

National Register of Citizens (NRC)

The Supreme Court ordered Assam government to update the NRC by a deadline and monitored its progress. Subsequently, the first draft of the roster was published on 30 July, 2018.

About 68 lakhs families comprising 3.29 crores applicants have applied for inclusion of their name in the NRC.

Following points are matter of concern need genuine consideration:

A. The NRC authority has failed to publish the prescribed documents, including the NRC 1951 and the voters’ lists up to 1971 in full form.

B. The NRC authority has failed to make the verification process free of arbitrariness.

C. The findings of the Family Tree verification have been used in a one-sided manner.

D. The NRC updation procedure is not error-free.

E. About 400 thousand applicants have failed to submit their claims.

F. There is a sizeable number of “doubtful” voters who have been marked “D”

H. The case of poor and illiterate people with no documents to prove their citizenship.

I. Who will be vulnerable: Adivasi , Dalits, Muslims

FEAR

Assam Accord:

In 1987, the United Muslim Front (UMF) lodged complain against the state AGP government for carrying a false campaign in the name of ‘Bangladeshis’. The UMF presented data before the Central government to prove that the AGP agitation and its exercise lacked proof. It stated that of the 2,45,167 cases of suspected foreigners investigated by the police between December 1985 (AGP came to power) and January 1987, only 7,771 were forwarded to the tribunals. And only 528 persons were declared foreigners. "So where are the lakhs of foreigners the AGP has been shouting about?" the UMF asked.

While the NRC is being updated, the Central Government has also amended the Citizenship Act, and the exercise is aimed to provide relief to non-Muslims and exclude Muslims.

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019 / CAA 2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill of 2019 (CAB) seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 Bill seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis migrating from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to India before December 31, 2014. Migrants from these communities were earlier given protection against legal action in the years 2015 & 2016 and long term visa provision was made for them. Citizenship will be given to them only after due scrutiny and recommendation of district authorities and the State Government. The minimum residency period for citizenship is 7 years. This is passed by Indian Parliament in December 2019, and is now CAA-2019.

The Government does not seek or explain why or how non-inclusion of the Muslims in the classification of beneficiaries would not be discriminatory or violate Article 14. It ignores the point that Rohingyas in Myanmar, Tamil Hindus & Tamil Muslims in Sri Lanka, Mohajirs, Baloch, Sindhi, Ahmadias in Pakistan, Urdu-speaking Muslims in Bangladesh, Hazaras, Tajiks in Afghanistan, and Sunnis in Iran are facing religious persecution. Indian Muslims who migrated to Pakistan also face persecution in Pakistan, and are called Mohajirs.

Inequality?

In Assam, the CAA /CAB violates the Assam Accord of 1985 and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Both (Assam Accord and NRC) are religion agnostic and set the cut-off data at March 24, 1971 for being declared as a foreigner or claiming citizenship.

The political party is clearly eyeing the votes of Bengali Hindus, who were once a Congress vote bank, comprising less than 10% of Assam’s population of 3.29-crore. Many Bengalis, however, feel the Bill will do them more harm than good, specifically if 1951 is taken as the base year by the Assam government for a move to define who are ‘Assamese’ and ensuring political, land and other rights for only “sons of the soil”.

For Muslims in India, struggling for life with dignity and self-respect, the NRC and CAA / CAB 2019 are the latest challenges. Many wonder why Muslims are being pushed to the wall. One after another non-issues are being highlighted to deflect attention from the real issues for political polarisation and votebank. It is to be seen, if the community can deal with the issue in coherent manner, or simply watch as History is being made by the government in implementing its core Hate Agenda and deprive the Muslims of its numerical strength in Assam, and target elsewhere to cement and corner a dedicated votebank for itself.

[1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/northeast-india/muslims-of-assam-presentabsent-history/5C1FA887C07576F096D944405D206B9A / Yasmin Saikia, Arizona State University

[2] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/who-are-the-muslims-of-assam/296831 / YASMIN SAIKIA22 APRIL 2016

[3] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/who-are-the-muslims-of-assam/296831 / YASMIN SAIKIA22 APRIL 2016

[4] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/who-are-the-muslims-of-assam/296831 / YASMIN SAIKIA22 APRIL 2016

[5] Growing up Miya in Assam: How the NRC weaponised my identity against me, ABDUL KALAM AZAD 23 September 2018 , Carvan

[6] https://caravanmagazine.in/communities/assam-against-itself-miya-poets-asserting-identity-intimidation-fir / Assam Against Itself / Intellectuals attack Miya poets asserting their identity, leading to intimidation and FIRs /AMRITA SINGH/02 August 2019

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/who-are-the-muslims-of-assam/296831 / YASMIN SAIKIA22 APRIL 2016

[3] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/who-are-the-muslims-of-assam/296831 / YASMIN SAIKIA22 APRIL 2016

[4] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/who-are-the-muslims-of-assam/296831 / YASMIN SAIKIA22 APRIL 2016

[5] Growing up Miya in Assam: How the NRC weaponised my identity against me, ABDUL KALAM AZAD 23 September 2018 , Carvan

India Hindsa Bharat

Monday, December 23, 2019

CAA , CAB , NRC and the People

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