India’s unity in diversity has always been a beacon of hope for democracy worldwide. But right now, as Assam tries to decide who is Indian and who is not, it risks betraying what makes India great.
We are just a day away from a critical deadline tomorrow, when the government of Assam will release a list of supposedly “Indian citizens”. This list brings us closer to the danger of millions of people, Bengali-speaking Muslims in particular, being deemed “foreigners”. They could eventually be rendered stateless. Innocent, hard-working people who have lived their entire lives in Assam, who have jobs and children, could be torn from their families and subjected to indefinite detention under terrible conditions.
The process of identifying citizens could be approached sensibly, and carried out fairly and humanely. But the horrifying possibilities of this particular exercise has been indicated by Assam’s own leaders, who govern the process. Days after 13 million people were left off a draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in January, Assam’s chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said, “The people who are declared foreigners will be barred from all constitutional rights, including fundamental and electoral.” To underscore the chilling words, his government is building a brand new prison camp in addition to six existing ones for “foreigners”.
There are stark parallels with Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya, whose eventual slaughter can be traced back to losing all rights as citizens in 1982. That’s how ethnic cleansing and even genocide can begin — with bureaucratic steps, largely invisible to the wider public, that end years later in horror.
The final citizenship update must comply with international human rights standards, and ensure that due process is followed. Specifically, no one should be detained or deported without the right to counsel and a fair trial that meets international standards. A naturalisation process must exist for all people, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 that offers a path to citizenship for non-Muslims, should extend to all, without discriminating on the basis of religion.
Middle-class Indians were horrified by the separations at the US border, but are paying much less attention to a similar, much bigger crisis about to erupt in their own country. Assam’s famous tea plantations mask the smouldering brew of ethnic tension in the state.
India has a right to control migration — every country does. But arbitrarily leaving people off the citizenship rolls because of spelling mistakes in their documents or because it is easy to bribe officials, is hardly a solution. And arbitrary exclusion is not going to control migration across a hugely porous border, which to an extent is determined not by governments but the natural forces of the constantly shifting Brahmaputra river.
Any plan that ultimately leaves individuals stateless, must also be unacceptable to the Indian government. A sustainable solution can only be reached through partnership with the government of Bangladesh, with agreement on who belongs where. The UN has launched a campaign to end statelessness by 2024. India should be contributing to the solution, not worsening the problem.
The state government has no answers to these questions: What is the legal status of those not on the list after Monday? Will their political and property rights, or even their “fundamental” rights be stripped away? What will be the fate of those people eventually left out as “foreigners”? The government has no agreement with Bangladesh to send people back. So what does India plan to do? Just dump people in prison camps for life?
The government’s lack of policy is causing panic amongst vulnerable sections of society. There are even reports of suicides out of fear and desperation ahead of the deadline.
The Assam government says that everyone left off the list will have the right to an appeal process. But their appeal would be not to the courts, but to the same authority that denied them a place on the list. And how are poverty-stricken citizens supposed to understand such a process let alone hire lawyers to engage it?
The Supreme Court is monitoring this but has yet to hear from vulnerable groups. Until the court properly adjudicates, a cloud hangs over the way the NRC has gone about this. We might place all our bets on the Supreme Court stepping in to prevent a nightmare, but we shouldn’t have to. The court will inevitably rely on facts, evaluations and processes provided by the state government.
It’s clear that Assam’s leaders got this process wrong to begin with. They have just days to get it right, and protect not just its most vulnerable citizens, but the greatness of Indian democracy itself.
courtesy: times of india
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/all-that-matters/upset-by-us-stand-on-migrants-bigger-crisis-is-brewing-in-assam/articleshow/65179916.cms