Much brouhaha has been raised over the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), even as the Union Cabinet on Wednesday okayed the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) for discussion in Parliament. The Register, which has not been updated since its inception, will cover the entire nation by 2024, as announced by Home Minister Amit Shah in his endeavour to get rid of ‘intruders’ from across the borders.
Though the battle lines have been drawn by both “ Shah and his political adversaries “ it would be interesting to know if the ‘Chanakya’ sails through, especially in the backdrop of ‘Rani of Bengal’ Mamata Banerjee wielding her sword to cut Shah to size. She has made her intent clear of opposing tooth-and-nail the implementation of NCR, at least in West Bengal, the turf dominated by Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The proposed bill in its present form seeks to ease norms for people of all faiths, except Muslims, from neighbouring countries “ Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to attain Indian citizenship. It’s a good move to throw your arms open to the oppressed people, but why only to certain faiths and not the Muslims? Hindu, Muslim, Christian or a Sikh, an infiltrator has no religion just like terrorists. Therefore, many eyebrows will be raised if attempts are made to target a certain faith.
Presently, a foreign national has to be a resident of India for 11 years before he or she can initiate going through the formalities of attaining citizenship of the country. The amended bill to be presented in the Lok Sabha shortly will seek to curtail the waiting period to 6 years. This move could boomerang on India, especially when its population looks north and economy down south. India has far more serious issues to address other than going after the infiltrators, and one that takes the top spot is unemployment.
The register initially came into being for the State of Assam after years of agitation led by All Assam Students Union (AASU). Two decades later after the Assam pact was signed, it was agreed in 2005 that all citizens of the State would be registered, and that, all illegal immigrants who crossed over into Assam after 1971 would be repatriated to their respective countries. However, the jet-speed at which this government is moving on the issue only shows its intent to build a Hindu vote bank at the cost of the minority community.
All said and done, the proposed bill will shortly be in the Lok Sabha and may not meet much resistance owing to the overwhelming numbers on the side of Shah and his team. The real test for the government would be in the Rajya Sabha where it is in the minority. Chances are that the bill might fall flat with the opposition taking up cudgels to ambush the move. Says Congress MP Shashi Tharoor: “I am opposed to the Bill. It is fundamentally against the tenets of democracy. I speak for myself. We cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.”
It’s over to the Parliament for now.
