Why are students protesting across India? Why is NRC a big controversial topic?

India has been seeing massive protests throughout this week and the media claims that this will grow beyond our imagination. The situation is rapidly growing to a violent situation probably running out of the control of the govt. The protest was started by the students of Jamia Milia University, Aligarh Muslim University, and the Delhi University. But understanding why this has been happening for a long time is certainly a big question mark.

MUNner’s daily last week covered the latest controversial legislation — The Citizenship Amendment Bill of 2019. If you are still in confusion about the same, please have a read!

In this article, we will be covering not much about the bill, but about what is the motive behind this bill and more about student protests. Before concluding, we will also be looking into NRC, citizenship and what is its implementation going to be like. The citations of the arguments are attached with words as a hyperlink. Read the entire text of CAA.

CAB is now CAA…Why? It has been signed by the President of India, it's not a bill anymore but an act. An act is a law.

The comments on social media began ever since this bill was tabled in the house. The political reactions started spreading like fire after the bill was passed. The first set of protest which caught public attention was the one in Assam, which was also surprising to the Government of India. Despite BJP ruling all the states in the North East, this indeed was a big jolt.

Jamia Milia University in Delhi was the first one to officially have a big protest outside NE on December 13th. As of 15th December, this protest turned violent with accusations of Police indulging in lathi-charge and teargas, entering into the campus. Around 35000 protesters were estimated to be present where just 3500 students were studying. The arrests were made and it turned out that none of the students was amongst them. Most of the people arrested were party affiliates or locals, who forced the tense situation by pelting stones at police. A similar instance happened in AMU.

Ever since then all major universities across India turning into a solidarity protest against the Police brutality on students. The ruling party-BJP claimed that the students were brainwashed by the opposition and they are being used as a pawn. While the hardlines said that students should keep away from protests and their duty is to study. Wasting taxpayers' money and destruction of public property can’t be tolerated. Students are also public property. That is why it’s illegal to take the life of a person or do a suicide.

Hypocrisy isn’t for BJP whose leaders like Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley being campus leaders who were against Emergency during Indira Gandhi’s rule itself wants to stop student protests. Isn’t the ABVP, also formed as a student union or is it a mere interest group?

JNU which was in headlines for the protest of fee hike was not seen in the mainstream media. While the colleges like IIMs and IITs considered being a haven for nerds gave big headlines for the next few days. Many International Universities like Harvard, Oxford etc have also presented solidarity support for the student’s protest in India. Internet shutdown has reached its peak with Delhi, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, and Mangalore coming under suspension of the network.

So coming to the main part…. Why are students in the forefront? Should they protest or should they not?

We have seen in JNU, seen in Hong Kong, Venezuela and in Assam were students planning and executing massive protests. Know why?

For the simplest reason that the opposition is dead and the students are now the new opposition in India or elsewhere. Congress party which failed to even create a protest against the Economic Crisis is being taught by the student leaders to organise protests across India, without violence. The Left Front has failed to come outside JNU and Kerala. In Hong Kong despite being in a democratic territory, China is trying to enter through the backside. The recent fee hike in JNU was not raised by any of the parties. Even ABVP was protesting against it. The students managed themselves. There has been a massive cut of 3000 cr in the budget for the education sector. No protest is being held, the students will take it up, no worries. Every time the opposition fails to raise the voice, someone will definitely fill in the void. Right to Protest is taken as a fundamental right in a democracy. Even today many middle-aged adults feel that students are not mature enough to do protests or understand laws.

As students, it’s our duty to study for changing society and not being like dummies. At a time when unemployment is at its highest level, what else will students do after getting degrees? For those who claim that Jamia is a Muslim University, just take out the list of alumni from the same, and count the number of non-Muslims. Why is it that students who support CAA can’t hold a rally and prove the students critics wrong for giving all the students the same colour?

Who is a citizen of India?

This question is very well answered in the constitution of India from Article 5–11. It was later updated with the Indian Citizenship act of 1955 and amendments 1987, 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2015 for giving people clarity on getting Indian Citizenship. For a foreign person to enter India, requires the need to have a passport and a VISA, under the Passport act of 1920 and subsequently the later added amendments relaxing the rules. A person entering India with proper documents is a legal immigrant while a person not having the documents is an illegal immigrant. None of this mention the religion as criteria for citizenship.

Through a process named naturalisation, a legal immigrant to India can get the citizenship of India, by living in India cumulatively for 11 years and stripping off his old citizenship. Under no circumstances, Illegal immigrants qualify to be the citizens of India by naturalisation. India doesn’t accept illegal immigrants as refugees in spite of UN regulations, as it has never signed the UN Refugee convention of 1951. Being a refugee or not, in India is subjective to the government. What CAA 2019 has done, is to legalize the terminology- ‘No illegal migrants can get Indian Citizenship by naturalisation’ to ‘Minorities of three Islamic Republics of 6 major (non-muslim) religions entering India before December 2014 and have lived 5 years are eligible for Indian citizenship through Naturalisation and they won’t be considered illegal immigrants’. They are also exempted from the Indian Passport Act and Foreigners Act. Exemptions to CAA are made to the regions in India- ILP of North East and the areas under Sixth Schedule.

Linking the protests to CAA

What is there to protest was the main question fired by the ruling party and many of its followers. It's ironic that people who have not read the law are asking the need for the protest.

The major claim of the government was that the persecuted minorities of three Islamic Republic will be given citizenship. But the entire text doesn’t even have the word ‘Religious’ or ‘Persecution’. The bill also doesn’t request for any documents from the immigrants. Then what is the proof of the religion and proof of persecution? The govt is yet to clarify on this.

The reason for protests in North East is because of the cut-off date for this bill is December 2014, which clearly violates the dates of Assam Accord with the cut-off date as March 1971. That means people are eligible to be citizens even if they don’t fit in the list. This law could credibly hurt the demography and local resources as many would claim.

The other side of the protest is done by opposition parties and students who claim this bill to be unconstitutional and anti-Muslim. This is now a far a bigger narrative spreading to all the state capitals and even the world outside. Other arguments include not including atheists, political asylum seekers and Muslim refugees, Sri Lankan and Myanmar refugees.

What is NRC and how is it different from Census?

NRC stands for National Register of Citizens. It contains the list of all Indian Citizens. The last time it was updated was in 1951, whereby which all people who came to India, were considered Indians by default. Later it was in 2003, few amendments were made for issuance of National Identity Cards. It was under Supreme Court of India, which made the NRC process in the state of Assam as promised in the Assam Accord.

By NRC you will be asked to produce documents proving your nativity to India or rather just proving that you are the citizen of India and not an illegal Immigrant. You will be assumed that you will be a foreigner. Unlike census which takes a survey, NRC is the real test. The first step for the same is like 2011 National Population Register(NPR), which accounts for the list of Residents in India (Understand the difference between a resident and a citizen). With false notions of spreading confusions between NRC with NPR, the various state governments like West Bengal, Kerala and Rajasthan have stopped the work on NPR. Census is the data collection and statistical analysis of socio-economic conditions of the population within a territory. The population includes foreigners working, migrants and permanent residence. Next census release is due in 2021.

Respected Home Minister Amit Shah has reiterated multiple times that NRC will be implemented nationwide. Even in the 2019 manifesto, BJP claimed that not even a single infiltrator will be spared. So let’s not be surprised if NRC is implemented.

Linking NRC with CAA

As said, the majority have warned not to mix both up. But unless you understand the NRC you won't get the reason why CAA was made.

When NRC was implemented in Assam over 1.9 million failed to get listed on it. Of which 5.6 lakh were Bengali Hindus failed to make it to the list. As per the experts and BJP, these Bengali Hindus are eligible for getting citizenship by CAA, while other Bengali Muslims are asked to approach the Tribunal. That doesn’t mean this will be the fate of everyone, but this itself is an exemplary case to watch out for. The other case is where Former President Fakruddin Ali’s family members couldn’t prove their citizenship. Many of the families had lost their documents in flooding, most of them are tribals, while a large majority don’t know the law and technicalities. The nationwide NRC will be catastrophic. Also, the entire exercise could fetch a sum of Rs 54,000 cr min, by an estimate by NDTV, which is humungous at a time when Nation is crippling through the economic crisis. BJP which earlier welcomed NRC, after finding out that Hindus weren’t included, started to claim it was flawed. Majority of states today have said that they won’t cooperate with centre on NRC. So the question still unanswered is how will NRC process be implemented without the support of state govt machinery. Even today, we don’t have a legal connection between NRC and CAA but still its an assumption that both overlap.

NRC also violated the basic principle of Presumption of Innocence and Burden of Proof. That means you are required to prove that you not guilty unlike otherwise.

Common Myths and Misuse of CAA and NRC

After NRC list is made, if you haven’t made to the list, then, if you are even able to lie to the authorities that you are from Islamic Republics and you're a minority from there, you will get citizenship with ease provided you have a political backing like you see, where BJP is trying to help the Bengali Hindus. Also, India has violated the preamble by giving citizenship on the basis of religion stands an argument by the opposition.

Arguments in Favour

• Upholding India’s past which always accepted asylum seekers
• Helping minorities persecuted is a moral responsibility and basic Human Rights
• Responsible neighbour
• They have been living here for years

Arguments against

• Cannot be religion segregated
• Violates Assam Accord
• Discriminatory
• Non-Secular
• Left out certain groups
• Unconstitutional
• Economic Crisis
• An overpopulated country like India cannot do it
• Ambiguity with respect to persecution and proof
• India’s image as a secular nation worldwide has taken a hit

A country basically cannot ask its own citizens to prove their citizenship and at the same time give citizenship to other illegal immigrants. Also, you are tactically differentiating a a refugee from these 3 countries and giving them more rights than those refugees coming from other countries.

Common Myths circulated on social media for vested interest/spreading hatred

All Muslims will have to leave India- False, there is nothing such as that in CAA. If you have proper documents you are safe. Don’t fall in to trap of fear-mongering.

Govt will deport the detainees who are not in NRC- India can’t deport them for time being, because India doesn’t have a deport policy and which country wants stateless people? They will be kept in detention camps atmost. Pakistan has refused to take immigrants, so did Bangladesh. Afghanistan is highly unstable where people want to leave from Afghanistan itself, why would it take refugees?

All three states mentioned in the CAA are India’s neighbours, so its right- Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, China are also India’s neighbours.

Muslims cannot be persecuted in their own country- False, Shias and Ahmediyas of Pakistan, Liberals in Bangladesh, Hazaras of Afghanistan, etc are persecuted too. All these are subsets of Islam. Also, Pakistan hosts 1.4 million Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban culture. Blasphemy laws still exist even today.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are the only ones with state religions- Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bhutan have Buddhism; Nepal has Hinduism.

Hindus have no other home than India- Nepal is a Hindu state, there are Hindu citizens in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

There is no persecution in other neighbouring countries- Christians in Bhutan, Rohingyas in Myanmar, Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka, Uighurs in China are also persecuted in their countries.

Hindu Population in Pakistan is wiped out- Hindus in Pakistan makeup 3%, roughly 2 million, and have reserved seats for Parliament. The population is set to double in 2040. Population Decline and wipe out are two different aspects. Pakistani Hindus have rejected this call for CAA.

Indian parliament cannot Ammend India’s citizenship laws- False, Article 11 gives the Parliament the power to do so.

India’s partition was on the basis of religion, so CAA can have religion as criteria for citizenship- False, Pakistan was formed due to religion and not India. Even Pakistan has given citizenship to Hindus and Christians, so why does India have to segregate on religion.

3 Islamic countries were part of India before partition- Afghanistan was not a part of British India.

Police have no right to enter a University without permission- False, Police has the right to enter the campus without prior notice too.

Reservation is also discriminatory like CAA and is unconstitutional- Reservation is for social upliftment, and it is exempted in the article 15 of the constitution. Reservation is extended for a period of 10 years by the Parliament unanimously.

Minority and Majority should have the same rights- Both can’t be compared, Minorities need to be given extra protection as they have faced suppression and marginalisation. They have special rights under article 15. In a democracy always Minorities have more rights.

NRC in Assam will be the Model for NRC across the country- Too early to say that as Govt hasn't said anything with respect to the same. Chances are that they will be relaxed.

Aadhar card is proof of citizenship — It is not proof of citizenship, it is a proof of residence.

Consequences

The tweet which has been going viral since CAB was passed was this one, which was later deleted on 20th December.

This tweet is nothing shocking and stands as the official stance taken by BJP and RSS in multiple times that India is the natural home of Hindus and they cannot be illegal immigrants in India. They also claim that 1.5 crore people will get citizenship, which is roughly half the population of Kerala. BJP expects all new citizens to vote for BJP in all elections as returning back the favour, puffing up its vote-bank. This will also act a counter to Trinamool’s alleged Muslim vote-bank of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh. Thus CAA will see its biggest fight in Bengal and not in Assam. Relate it with the situation of Bengali Hindus in Assam. BJP was quick enough to tweet an old video of Dr Manmohan Singh asking for the protection of minorities of Bangladesh in 2003. There is no denying that the country is under chaos.

Even in this economic crisis, we don’t have enough resources for the new population as well as the old citizen vs new citizen terminology will come in the fray. The UN and US sanctions committee has issued concerns against the bill.

With protests raging far and wide, misinformation spreads fast. Through the internet shut down, govt aims to bring down the chaos, mobilisation of protest as well as fake news. The protests have been already hijacked and Hindu-Muslim colour has already been given. These protests will automatically wipe out so-called secular parties like Congress and bring right-wing parties like PFI, AIMIM and BJP as the beneficiaries, turning the Overton window to extreme right. That is why only peaceful protests should be encouraged, otherwise, the govt will have the excuse to use Section 144, and Internet lockdown every now and then. The law and order system of this country is already under a question. BJP through this move has somewhat accepted fact of “Two Nation Theory” by Veer Savarkar and later adopted by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together in this country or be clear that Pakistan is for Muslims and India is for Hindus. Even today BJP doesn’t even have a single Muslim Lok Sabha MP. So, how is BJP going to earn the trust of Muslims in India? Is the Central Government only for certain communities?

The future of the act will be automatically in the hands of the judiciary, where SC has asked govt to raise awareness on this bill. Eminent lawyers like Harish Salve still claim that the bill is constitutional. Everything is just an interpretation of the law. While on the matters of logical differentia, the selection of the 3 countries itself is a question which the govt will have to answer. The govt has released awareness articles through social media. Also, NRC will not come out soon — GOI.

Whether Congress or BJP, the two sides of the same coin justifying their sides, has made a lot of grave mistakes in the past including vote bank politics and attack on institutions. From Emergency to Section144 to Internet shutdowns to full majority in both houses are drastically being misused. PM Modi also was absent during the discussion of both CAB and JK reorg bill. We the citizens of India are fooled by these vested interest to satisfy their own interest and kill the inherited democratic, secular and liberal India. Stop spreading fake forwards on social media on such topics. If you support CAA, you should answer all queries and justify, if you are against CAA, you have to justify it but you also have the right to protest. Have an open discussion to sort it out and let's not fall prey to Right Wing religious fanatism played out to take advantage of the chaos and spread hate. There is no need to have a panic situation in India right now.

Disclaimer: We are a platform which allows all views to be represented without bias or discrimination. This piece is not to be judged upon as the final stance of MUNner’s daily or MEC MUN Society.

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