Citizenship Amendment Bill and National Register of Citizens – The deadly mixture!

The Union Cabinet has once again approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). Sangh bhakts are defending it blindly. Some ‘neutrals’ are supporting it out of their concern for the 'persecuted religious minority' from neighboring countries, even as they actively contribute to the persecution of minority in India, through their voice or silence!

On the face of it, it may appear that providing asylum to persecuted minorities is a noble objective. However, I am convinced that the real motives of the CAB is simply sinister. The point I am making in this post is that the CAB has nothing to do with saving the persecuted religious minorities (It will not even protect the Tamilians who had to infiltrate into India, to escape persecution by Sri Lanka during the civil war days). Its only aim is to persecute India's largest religious minority- Muslims. Let me elaborate.

The CAB, as reported, is granting citizenship rights to all those Non-Muslim 'illegal migrants' from neighboring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who infiltrated into Indian before December 2014. They just have to show that they were in India for five years- no matter how they entered India.

Will anyone verify whether these illegal migrants were really subjected to any persecution, before granting them citizenship? No. All proceedings against them will stand abated with the passing of CAB and they become Indian citizens.

Please note, the Bill is not prospective. It is not to grant asylum to people from religious persecution in the future. It is only for granting citizenship to those who had already migrated to India before December 2014- the cutoff date. No matter what their objective or motive was while illegally entering India.

So, what is the point?

The point is in reading the CAB with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

By virtue of CAB, every person in India who can prove their presence in India before December 2014 can get automatic entry into NRC. Not so, for Indian Muslims. Muslims in India will be required to prove their continuous citizenship and residence from 1955 or whatever cutoff date is adopted for entry into NRC.  We all know how difficult and challenging it is to produce documents to the satisfaction of NRC officials, from the horror stories we get to hear from Assam NRC experience! At the same time, all other religious people will be protected by virtue of CAB.

Now you appreciate the danger?

With the passing of CAB and adoption of NRC, India's Muslims who cannot 'satisfy' the NRC officials will lose their citizenship, while all illegal migrants from neighboring countries will get admission into NRC if they belong to any of the other major religions of India!

Denial or discrimination in granting citizenship (or any other rights), based on one's religion is totally against the basic features of the Indian Constitution. Supreme Court has made it clear that Secular character is one of the basic features of our Constitution, which cannot even be amended by the Parliament!

If the intention is to grant protection to those who are persecuted on religious grounds why exclude Muslims alone? If Muslims are not subject to any persecution (as some claim), they don't have to be given any asylum on that ground. Citizenship should not be automatic on religious grounds.

Criminalizing abandonment of wives by Muslims alone (through a null & void triple talaq) was another example of such acts of discrimination by this Govt. If the intention was good, they could have made abandonment of wives by anyone (including for the lofty objectives like becoming the PM) a criminal offense!

So, the proposed CAB and NRC together will destroy the very idea of India, as we know it!

Now the question is, who all will allow it to be passed in the Parliament?

And if the Parliament cannot prevent this unconstitutional law from being passed, how soon and how effectively Indian Supreme Court will stand up to protect the very essence of the Constitution?

Keeping my fingers crossed on the future of India!

“We the Idiots” from “We the People”

The Telegraph said it openly and bluntly, “We the Idiots!”

The framers of the Indian Constitution drafted the document from the perspective of ‘We the People.’ However, when our constitutional institutions and worthy people occupying those positions acted in a late-night drama to install Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, they did everything on the basis of perspective that we are just a bunch of idiots and not a people!

A government which is installed secretly, taking advantage of the darkness of late night, cannot but be termed as an immoral child of darkness!

When I say this, I do not mean to claim that Indian politics was full of pristine virtues until the night of 22-23 November 2019. Throughout independent India’s history, politicians and political parties have acted in the worst manner whenever it suited them for capturing power. However, all such acts had the benefit of some or other loophole in the constitutional scheme of things. For example, look at the latest Supreme Court verdict that allowed Karnataka’s defector MLAs to contest the bye-elections despite being disqualified from the same assembly. Though the decision may not appeal to the sense of what is right, one cannot fault the Supreme Court because of the legal position or loophole existing as of today.

The same is the case with most government formations in the recent past. Nitish Kumar broke a pre-poll alliance that was running the government in Bihar only to join their opponent BJP to form another government. In Karnataka, MLAs from the ruling alliance were induced to resign from their posts to cause the fall of the existing government, and then inducted and given tickets for contesting the bye-elections by BJP. Most recently, in Haryana, BJP joined hands with their arch-rivals in the just concluded elections to form a coalition government. I am not even going to list all the other governments formed by BJP since Narendra Modi assumed power at Centre, from Kashmir to Goa to Manipur, using not so honourable tactics like threatening or purchasing of MLAs.  

Howsoever it may be desirable, honour is not a mandatory requirement in politics and all these government formations (and scores of others by other ruling parties in the past) can be defended as (much abused) Chanakya’s strategy that took advantage of the existing loopholes in the system.

Let us be practical. In a multiparty representational democracy when no single party or alliance manages to get a simple majority to form the government, the parties that contested elections against each other may have to come together to form post-poll alliances and assume the power. Otherwise, we will end up with perennial reelections until one party or alliance manages to get the majority.

Since post-poll alliances cannot be wished away, there is nothing wrong (legally, even if not ideologically or morally) if BJP and NCP decide to come together and form a government. So is the case when ideological opponents like Congress and Shivsena decide to form a coalition government.

There is nothing wrong in such attempts per se, at least from the constitutional perspective.

In all such attempts at government formations, the ruling party at the Centre is likely to have some advantage over the opposition, mainly owing to the role of Centre’s nominee, the Governor acting as a biased arbitrator. There is no point denying these political realities.

However, when such attempts are made to form governments by creating a majority, it is the solemn duty of the Governors and other constitutional authorities to ensure that things are kept within the limits of the Constitution. As they say, at least the pretense of constitutional propriety must be maintained in everything that is done by these authorities. No matter, who got them appointed to the posts, these authorities have a duty to the people and the Constitution since they and their families are eating out of the salary received by them from the taxes paid by the people!

In the case of Maharashtra, it is now apparent that the Governor, the Prime Minister, and the President have all acted in an unconstitutional manner to install and illegal government. Ajit Pawar switched sides and took oath as part of this illegal government, without even the mandatory support of one-third of the MLAs. And to facilitate such an illegal act, the President agreed to withdraw the Governor’s rule in the dead of the night, without even insisting on the mandatory recommendation from the Cabinet.  There can be no two opinions that this act of the President was nowhere near the dignity of his office. If this presidential order can be compared with anything, it is only with the infamous order of declaring the Emergency in 1975.

Only a regime that treats the people as a mere bunch of idiots can undertake such gross violations of their duties and constitutional norms. It is in this context that the Main Heading of The Telegraph becomes apt and assumes critical importance for India’s polity.

Now we can only wait to see how the Supreme Court deals with its paramount duty of upholding the Indian Constitution. Will the Court act promptly in restoring the people’s confidence in our systems, or will it procrastinate and thereby provide adequate time and opportunity to BJP to indulge in horse-trading and cobbling up an immoral majority?

Until then ‘We the Idiots’ can only feel sorry of the Indian Constitution!