Replicating NRC is unwise

The BJP should rethink its approach. The costs are too high

Even as Assam struggles to come to terms with the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) — where 1.9 million residents have been excluded — various other states are now toying with the idea of replicating the process. In the latest instance, on Sunday, Haryana chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar, who is in the middle of his campaign seeking re-election, said that he will implement the NRC. Last week, Jharkhand CM, Raghubar Das, pushed for an NRC in the state — claiming that “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh were eating into the benefits which were due to legal Muslim residents. Uttar Pradesh CM, Yogi Adityanath, has also hinted that, using Assam’s experience, his state could start the NRC process, if necessary. This, he felt, would help national security.

It is not a coincidence that all three chief ministers are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Party president, Amit Shah, himself, both during the election campaign and in recent weeks, has spoken of the need for a nationwide NRC. The ideological impulses are not hard to discern. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has long believed that India has seen an influx of illegal immigrants, primarily Muslims. It has blamed other parties for turning a blind eye to this, even enabling the migration, to create “vote banks”, and argued that India stares at the prospect of demographic change. The BJP’S electoral motivation is also clear. The rhetoric of NRC has deepened polarisation, and helped consolidate the “Hindu vote” in regions with a substantial Muslim population.

But it is time to step back and look at Assam and the lessons from there. As this newspaper has argued, the NRC process extracted huge costs. It caused great humanitarian distress; it divided Assamese society and the political subtext became communal in nature; it has caused uncertainty since there is no clarity on what happens to those excluded; and it can also lead to a possible rift with Bangladesh since the discourse is centred around immigrants from there. Policy analyst, Yamini Aiyar, has also spoken of bureaucratic dysfunction, how the government does not seem to have faith in its own documents, and the lack of State capacity to have a fair process on a national scale. The BJP itself is not satisfied with the outcome in Assam because the NRC process overturned its own assumptions. Not as many Muslims as it thought were excluded; and more Hindus than it assumed were left out. Others have pointed to the exclusion of genuine citizens, irrespective of religion. Citizens indeed have the first right over India. And India must have mechanisms to deal with non-citizens. But replicating the NRC nationally is not a solution to illegal immigration.