CAA-NRC: WHAT LIES BENEATH
On December 9, taking part in the Lok Sabha debate over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Union home minister Amit Shah said: “Maan ke chaliye NRC aane wala hai (accept that the NRC is coming).” Earlier, in Jharkhand, he had even set a deadline for the exercise—2024. Yet, on December 22, addressing a massive rally in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government had never had any discussion on a nationwide National Register of Citizens. Modi’s attempt to distance himself from the NRC—a project not only backed by his deputy Shah but also included in the BJP’s election manifesto—came as a shock to many. It clearly indicates that the government is under tremendous pressure over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, fuelled by fear over the NRC.
The CAA makes Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Parsi immigrants who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh (and have stayed in the country for five years), eligible for Indian citizenship. As it excludes only Muslim immigrants, many have expressed worry that when the NRC is rolled out, it will leave out Muslim immigrants as all non-Muslim immigrants will have got citizenship by then. Political analysts believe that the rush for the CAA and NRC are aimed at Assam and West Bengal. Both states go to polls in 2021, and the BJP’s election strategy pivots on the consolidation of Hindu votes around the fear of illegal Muslim immigrants.
Unmoved by the BJP’s electoral
calculations, the people of Assam erupted in protest. They feared that the inclusion of Bangla-speaking Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh would pose a threat to their language and culture. And in the national capital, students from Jamia Millia Islamia university hit the streets, saying the CAA violated India’s secular ethos by discriminating against Muslim immigrants. The protest turned violent and Delhi Police entered the Jamia campus, launching a brutal assault on students. Students from several educational institutes across the country protested in solidarity with Jamia students and against the CAA.
The agitation soon spread across the country, including people from all walks—actors, academics, activists and political leaders. The police in most BJP-ruled states responded with extreme high-handedness. In some places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, protesters resorted to violence, destroying public property, pelting the police with stones and even burning police outposts. The police responded with bullets, killing five in Assam and 15 in UP (though the UP police has denied opening fire).
The CAA is arguably not the Modi government’s most contentious decision. The dilution of Article 370 and the criminalising of triple talaq also affected many citizens and caused much
MODI HAS BLAMED THE OPPOSITION, SAYING IT WAS A CONGRESS GOVERNMENT THAT BEGAN ASSAM’S NRC
heartburn. But if popular protest was effectively gagged through the clampdown in Kashmir, triple talaq even received support within the community, especially among Muslim women. If the Centre was caught off guard handling the protests this time, it’s because it had been lulled into believing that there would be no effective resistance.
The CAA grabbed global attention. The government was already facing international scrutiny over the dismantling of Article 370. Unfavourable tourism advisories by the US and UK following the CAA unrest rang alarm bells in industry. With the economy in the doldrums, the Modi regime can’t afford a blow to this revenue-generating sector.
The domestic political front is looking less upbeat for the BJP. The Modi wave may have swept the Lok Sabha election in May, but it had limited impact in the states—the BJP has lost five states in the past year. It’s not surprising that Modi’s statement about the NRC came a day before the BJP lost Jharkhand.
Although the PM’s address was aimed at calming public anger, it was far from being conciliatory. In no mood to concede space, he blamed the Opposition for spreading misinformation and said it was a Congress government that began the NRC exercise in Assam. (The Assam NRC was a consequence of two factors—the Assam Accord in 1985 and a PIL in Supreme Court in 2009.) To counter the Opposition’s narrative that the CAA and NRC were the BJP government’s tools to build a unipolar Hindu country, Modi began his speech in Delhi by asking the crowd to recall this slogan: “Unity in diversity is the uniqueness of India.”
BJP insiders see this as a temporary retreat in a hostile political environment. After all, as one BJP leader points out, the PM has said there has been no discussion on the NRC—but he hasn’t said there won’t be any in the future.