Expressing concern over the NRC exercise in Assam, the group says Citizenship Bill has exacerbated the situation.
New Delhi: In yet another open letter urging the Modi government to act, a group of 48 retired civil servants Monday expressed “growing concern” over the situation unfolding in Assam, calling it a consequence of the National Register of Citizens being updated.
The group said that a situation is being “exacerbated by the ill-conceived decision of the Government of India to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed by Parliament”.
The final draft of the NRC was published on 30 July 2018 and left over 40 lakh people ineligible for citizenship in the state.
In the letter, the former IAS officers argued that the NRC exercise in Assam has caused “a real fear among those excluded — overwhelmingly from minority groups… constituting the poorest of the poor — that they might be rendered stateless”.
The letter outlined a series of information gaps in the process, highlighting that even today there is no clarity on what the legal status and fate of those excluded from the final NRC will be.
The NRC, first published after the 1951 Census, is now being updated in a Supreme Court-monitored exercise keeping 24 March 1971 as the cut-off to identify those who immigrated to Assam illegally from Bangladesh after that date.
Also read: NRC process in next 6 months crucial for 32 lakh people in Assam, and for BJP’s poll agenda
‘Segregation’
The group said that the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the NRC process, has “endorsed this segregation”, “without any definition or directions to determine who the ‘original’ inhabitants of Assam were”.
By virtue, the “‘non-original’ applicants have been taken to mean mostly Bengali and Nepali-speaking persons and other minorities”.
For the group, the most poignant reality of the NRC exercise is the fact that those excluded from the list run the risk of being declared foreigners and “locked up in detention centres”.
Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries do not currently recognise those excluded from the list as their citizens.
There is no repatriation treaty between India and Bangladesh.
As a result, “these detentions will potentially be indefinite”, the group said. They pointed out a recent enquiry by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that revealed a “chilling account” of these detention centres.
Currently, there are six detention centres in Assam set up within existing jails.
Citizenship Bill, suggested solutions
The civil servants wrote that the “ill-advised” and “flawed” Citizenship (Amendment) Bill through Parliament will exacerbate local tensions between “indigenous” and “migrant” populations.
The group added that the bill also appears to be clearly violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, denying “equal protection of the laws within the territory of India” to all persons, irrespective of citizenship.
The group suggested six points to solve the issues: A clarification of the legal status of NRC-excluded persons, a review of the claims and objections process by the Supreme Court, a discussion between India and neighbouring countries, a review of the foreigners tribunals to make them effective judicial forums for redress, and an assessment of the conditions of the detention centres for “declared foreigners.”
Also read: The Citizenship Bill complements NRC in pushing BJP’s Hindutva agenda: here’s how
Not the first time
This isn’t the first time that this group of former IAS officers has voiced its dissatisfaction with the Modi government.
In the past 20 months, the group has issued a number of letters “expressing our concern at the erosion of constitutional values in the country and the weakening of institutions” in the country.
The group has previously appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on matters including the Unnao and Kathua rape cases, and the arrests of five activists in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence.
In December last year, the group’s open letter to Modi demanded the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over alleged cow slaughter in Bulandshahr.
Unauthorised immigrants are coming I to India from Bangladesh , Bhutan , Myanmar and so e other countries
We have some treaties with some countries and also certain I ternal accords between centre and various groups.Added to that we don’t have any repatriation treaties with our neighbour countries. But all of a sudden now why this issue is focussed : politics. In Assam and some other states Muslim immigrants are more and the present central govt is averse to that tribe reasons best known to them. But any exercise is not done well create ugly situation in future. The funny part of it is in the process genuine citizens lost their citizenship and for which nobody is responsible and accountable
Locals versus Outsiders is a hot debate everywhere. BREXIT happened because of this; Donald Trump won the U.S. elections because of this. In any situation the “locals” are obviously in a majority, so anyone who whips up their passion against the foreigners who are seen to be encroaching upon their jobs and resources, always gets an applause from the majority.
But any responsible leadership before it goes full throttle against the “outsiders” must clearly answer this question:
WHAT WILL BE DONE WITH THE “FOREIGNERS” ONCE THEY ARE CLEARLY IDENTIFIED THUS???
There may be hundreds of thousands of them. At present, they are occupied in some way and are earning their livelihood. They are self sufficient and not a burden on the state. Will they be uprooted from their occupations so that the “locals” can get those jobs? Will the locals be WILLING to take up those jobs? Will the uprooted foreigners be accommodated in government relief camps? Who will foot the bill for lakhs and lakhs of people in those camps and for an indefinite period of time? Will Bangladesh agree to take back those lakhs and lakhs of foreigners? If not, then will India fight a war with Bangladesh on this issue?
(At one point in Maharashtra, lots of outsiders left the state due to persecution by a few political parties. The locals showed no interest in the jobs that were now available to them — that of menial labor in construction industry, vegetable selling, etc. As a result, the wages of manual labor shot up to Rs.800 a day which the builders couldn’t afford! In the end, the outsiders were “allowed” to return to their old jobs.)
NRC looks attractive to BJP politicians and Modi government for political gains that might accrue to them in the short run. But they must realize that such gains will very soon go against them, because the resulting situation will be totally uncontrollable, fraught with danger of rampant violence not just in Assam but all over the country.
As a very kind hearted person, I would say, Shift the cutoff date from 25 March 1971 to 31 December 2018 and let these hardworking, God fearing people stay on, enrich India with their industry and enterprise. Vaapis to koi jaane wala nahin hai …
This whole idea of NRC in a country like India encompassing that part of its past when there were no computers and all data was ONLY paper-confined, IS HIGHLY UNFAIR. I went to school in towns, big or small — but not remote villages — and I remember how difficult it was to make copies of certificates (on a typewriter; there were no Xerox machines then), and then find a “Gazetted Officer” to attest them. Originals got moth-eaten. The art or science of LAMINATION had not arrived yet.
Situation could have been only worse in villages, and more so in remote villages. In fact there was no “document culture” in our country then — such was the blissful simplicity or naivety of our people of those times. My father was in a transferrable job, and I do not remember if my parents had any voting cards, or frankly, if they ever went for voting, or if their names were there on any voting lists. By today’s yardsticks they just did not exist those many years ago!
If any NRC kind of exercise is conducted 50 years FROM NOW, the situation will be entirety different. There will have been computers and computer records, and each person’s own pen drive or portable hard disk with all his or her data on it, LAMINATED paper certificates etc. etc.
In our country of remote villages, scarce awareness of, and lack of facility for creating and copying documents 50 YEARS AGO, the VERY IDEA of NRC is, I would even say, CRUEL. I do not know what the final result of this exercise will be. I will personally be very happy if it ends in a massive confusion, with the powers that be realizing that it was a futile effort to begin with. After all, if the question comes up of uprooting entire families who have called their home their home for 50 years and no one has questioned them for doing so until now, then shouldn’t the benefit of the doubt be applied to them? That, yes, that indeed is their home? If the phrase THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT cannot be applied to them, then in what situations will this phrase ever be justified to be applied, and indeed the question will arise as to why this phrase has even survived in the civilized society for so long?
I still do not have a copy of the graduation certificate – meant to be – issued to me by Calcutta University. On a couple of critical moments in life that it was required, got by with a copy of the mark sheet. Those were also more trusting times.