Ritwik Agrawal

Hindi version available here:
https://www.facebook.com/suman.k.agrawal/posts/2707833989282912

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Everyone who believes in a pluralistic and inclusive India should boycott the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA 2019) and the proposed National Register of Citizens. Kudos to the state governments (Punjab, WB, Chattisgarh, Kerala, etc.) which have announced that they will not participate in this exercise.

As the UN has said, a naturalization law based on religion (i..e, the CAA 2019) is fundamentally discriminatory. As secularism is a part of the ‘basic structure’ of the constitution as defined by the Supreme Court, it seems that this amendment is blatantly unconstitutional and should be struck down in its entirety.

For those claiming that “this won’t affect Indian Muslims”, there are two points to consider:

1. It is clearly wrong for a secular democracy to have differentiated criteria for offering asylum and citizenship on religious grounds. Just like it was wrong for the US government, among others, to deny many Jewish people escaping German persecution entry into the US in the late 1930s. This is now correctly regarded as a shameful chapter. Let us learn from history and not repeat terrible mistakes that other democracies have made.
2. Under the CAA 2019, it is far easier for non-Muslims to stay on in India as full citizens even if they are unable to produce documentation “proving” their citizenship. This means that the CAA 2019 has given the police and the administration a serious threat to dangle over the huge number (200 million) muslims who live in India.

Apart from the sheer inhumanity and unfairness of this (since it treats Muslims differently from all other religious groups), it is a nightmare for social peace, communal harmony, and ultimately stability and economic growth. This makes the CAA 2019 and the associated NRC exercise deeply anti-India and should be resisted by all people who value peace, stability, human rights, and economic growth in India.

Finally, PM Modi wrote about “Indian ethos” on Twitter, referring to protests against the NRC. To have an immigration law which picks and chooses people based on religion is a fundamental betrayal of Indian ethos as well as India’s history.