The NRC and the Muslims

By: Asad Mirza

The National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill emerged as key issues during the election campaign with both BJP President Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at loggerheads over it.

The BJP is pitching the NRC as a strong step against infiltrators and illegal immigrants. Shah, during his rally at Kalimpong, in the hill district of Darjeeling, spoke in favour of the issue, claiming that it does not affect Gorkhas and some ethnic tribes of the region. Through the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the BJP will look to grant citizenship to religious minorities who have been persecuted in the neighbouring countries.
On the other hand, Banerjee has raised objections to both the policies, claiming that several people will lose citizenship and voting rights.

What has happened in Assam, with the implementation of NRC is there for every one to see. Scores of people have been labelled ‘foreigners’ and detained in detention camps, despite having documents to prove their identity, domicile and legal status.

NRC across India
Shah promised the implementation of the NRC across the country if voted to power again. “We have promised in our manifesto that once Narendra Modi forms the government again, we will implement the NRC across the country. We will remove every single infiltrator from the country,” he said.

Following Shah’s statement, in a Tweet on 11 April, the official Twitter handle for the BJP had posted, “ We will ensure implementation of NRC in the entire country. We will remove every single infiltrator from the country, except Buddha, Hindus and Sikhs”

As a result of this there was a storm on Twitter, Congress party said, “The BJP has made it clear that they have no respect for our Constitution & no remorse in dividing our nation on communal lines.”

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on his Twitter account said,”They want to reduce the idea of Indianness to descent & religion, erasing all other faiths, cultures & identities.”

Other people commented, “This is plain Saffron Terror. No pretences. Shamelessness. The ‘Other’ and the ‘infiltrator’, according to BJP, is the Muslim. This communal politics based on hatred, bigotry & Hindu extremism is what BJP is all about. Official Twitter handle of BJP bats for bigotry and exclusion.”

The Kerala Christian Forum on 11 April demanded an apology from Amit Shah saying, “It was a direct attack on the identity and integrity of the nation as a secular state”. It further said “ we hope that Amit Shah and BJP tender an apology to the nation and especially to the minority communities of the country, which has felt persecuted by the statement.”

First prepared in 1951, National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register that lists all “genuine Indian citizens” residing in Assam. NRC has often come under fire for being “unfair” to citizens who are left out from it.

A month after Shah’s statement, an intervention application was filed in the Supreme Court seeking action against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah for his statements on Assam’s National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The petition, filed by the Assam Andolan Sangrami Manch which is against the citizenship amendment bill, said Shah had stated that the citizenship bill would come first and then the NRC. Such an assertion had shocked the people of Assam and left them scared, the NGO said. It claimed the amendment to the 1955 act allows legally migrated Hindus, Sikh, Christians and Jains from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to be citizens of Assam, which would affect the interests of the indigenous people.

The petition said Shah’s statement had given “a colour of religion” in the process of updating the NRC. It has given a wrong message to the people of Assam and “is an onslaught on the judicial process of the Supreme Court.”

While the Home ministry, in its new amended order, spelled a clear road map for those not included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), it also gave unspecified and unprecedented powers to the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) – the quasi-judicial authority that assesses the question of authenticity of a person’s citizenship.

As per the latest announcement made on 10 June, the new Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order 2019, dated May 30, allows all states to constitute their own FTs, earlier unique to Assam, to address the question of citizenship of a person. The amendment empowers district magistrates in all states and union territories to set up FTs to detect foreigners.

However, the community which seems to the biggest target of the NRC are the Muslims. And it flummoxes one, that apart from Mr Owaisi, no other Muslim leader has awaken to the threat of this action and what actions the community should take to counter it.

The NRC gives a list of several identity documents through which one prove his domicile and identity, such as: Aadhar Card, National Voter Card, Passport, Driving Licence, Birth Certificate and Educational Certificate.

But the manner in which the whole plan would be implemented is that, the younger minority citizens may escape the scrutiny, as most of them possess virtually all documents required. But the biggest issue is that of our parents and elders.

Once the NRC gets implemented, in case of senior citizens, their every document will be rejected and the officials will insist on producing a Birth Certificate.

Now you tell me how many of our elders will have this birth certificate in their possession. As during their time, most of the deliveries used to take place at home and the first point where their date of birth used to be officially registered, used to be the school, and so far, the school leaving certificate also used to serve as the birth certificate.

Now as many of them may not possess a government issued Birth Certificate they may be dubbed as ‘foreigners’ and ‘infiltrators’, and asked to leave the country. This poses one dilemma for Mr Shah also, where would he send all those whom he may identify as ‘foreigners’, to which country?

The community leaders should put their heads together to decide their strategy to counter this evil plan, once it is implemented in a year or two. Otherwise, as always we’ll continue to sleep till the danger is knocking at our doors and then will respond in a knee-jerk and completely undignified manner to the problem.

Let’s try to bring this issue at the top of Muslim leader’s and community’s agenda and try to find a way out before it is too late.

Asad Mirza is a Sr journalist based in New Delhi. In his career spanning more than 20 years, he was also associated with BBC Urdu Service and Khaleej Times of Dubai. He writes on Muslims, educational and international affairs issues.