ASSAMESE ASIDE, NONE HAS REASON TO PROTEST

The enactment of the new citizenship law has triggered protests in large parts of the country. In the Muslim-dominated areas in Delhi and some other parts of the country there have been particularly raucous protests. In the national capital following incidents of rioting, arson on Sunday evening the police is said to have entered the Jamia Millia Islamia campus, allegedly beating indiscriminately those present there. This provoked widespread outrage with people questioning why the police had failed to seek prior permission before going in hot pursuit of rioters/arsonists. Subsequently it was learnt that the mischief-makers were outsiders who had joined the students. The arrest of ten persons in connection with the Jamia violence lent credence to the claim that the real mischief was done by outsiders, and not students. A day later rioting spread to Seelampur, a shanty colony dominated by Muslims in east Delhi, where there were fresh incidents of rioting and arson. Protests also took place in parts of the old city in Delhi, Hyderabad and a few other places. Simultaneously university students in parts of the country held protests in sympathy with the students of the Jamia Millia Islamia and in general to oppose the new citizenship amendment law. Clearly, Citizenship Amendment Act has proved controversial. But anyone who cares to read the actual change in law would be left wondering what all the fuss is about. For, it does not change even a bee-wit the citizenship of those who are already living in India. Indian Muslims are not affected adversely in any way, unless it is their case that their co-religionists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh too ought to given the fast-track citizenship as is being now made available to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists. But, again, it is not as if members of these persecuted groups from these countries can acquire citizenship immediately. No, those already in India before December 2014 alone can seek benefit of CAA provided they have been resident here for at least five years (as against eleven years for others). This is all. Why should that cause panic among Muslims is not clear. Yes, Assamese-speaking people have reason to complain that instead of the earlier cut-off of 1971, CAA has made 2014 the cut-off year, thereby giving illegal BengaliHindu migrants in Assam a relatively easy passage to citizenship. That explains the widespread anger among the ethnic Assamese for fear that their language, their culture would be swamped by ‘foreigner Bengali-Hindus’ who had migrated from neighbouring Bangladesh. It is another matter that despite the Assam Accord of 1985, despite repeated efforts to repatriate small groups of illegal migrants to Bangladesh, Assam has seen an ever increasing influx of illegal migrants. Whereas not one ‘foreigner’ has been returned to his country of origin.

Also, contrary to the misconception, there is no change in India’s obligation under the UN charter of refugees and it will continue to treat their application for asylum/citizenship as per the existing laws as before. Nor is there any change in the naturalization process for granting citizenship to members of all religions, including Hindus, whose origins lie in countries other than the three specifically listed in the CAA. True, there are some who feel angry that religion should have been made a marker for according fasttrack citizenship to the persecuted people from the three countries. If not religion, what else could distinguish the persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh? How it constitutes an attack on the secular character of the Constitution defies commonsense. Surely, the race, ethnicity, etc could not be a ground for providing relief to the persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, etc when the sole reason for persecution lies in the stark fact that they are non-Muslims in avowedly Muslim countries. Yes, where the Government erred was in not educating people about the objectives and provisions of CAA before-hand. It ought to have engaged the Assamese stakeholders in advance, allayed their misgivings over the threat posed to their language, their culture, etc. That is the nub of the problem. Why the Muslims should feel outraged over a law which does not touch them even remotely defies reason. Or could it be the accumulated anger over a series of upsets be it the criminalisation of triple talaq, Article 370 excision, the Ram mandir, etc, which they now vent but over CAA?