Opinion on the "Anti Assam" Bill

WHAT IS THE CITIZENSHIP BILL?

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, is an attempt to amend India’s citizenship law to ease the process of obtaining Indian citizenship. However, in its present form, the Bill would make undocumented migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, eligible for citizenship. The Third Schedule of the Citizenship Act provides for conditions to obtain citizenship by naturalisation. Two relevant points in this regard are that it does not apply to illegal immigrants, and to obtain citizenship one has to have resided in India for 12 years consecutively. The proposed amendment would reduce this time to six years. The Bill presumes that all persons who belong to the mentioned religions and come from the specified countries are persecuted minorities. Considering that atheists too have come under attack in the list of countries, one could wonder why atheists are not included.

The problem with this Bill is that it falls foul of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, which bars discriminatory legislation. The reason is that there are other categories of persons who legitimately should be considered refugees. The other reason is that the Bill quite clearly limits the exemptions to ‘Muslim majority’ countries. Though applicable to the entire country, the biggest opposition to the Bill has come from the Northeast and Assam in particular.

The Bill has been controversial for two reasons. Firstly, to the secular-minded populace of India, the Bill’s overtly discriminatory nature violates the Constitution. The second reason is that the Bill is likely to vitiate the tentative stability the North Eastern region has witnessed over the past few years. In the run-up to and during the Monsoon Session, student and civil society organisations in the Northeast organised large-scale protests against the Bill. The Meghalaya Cabinet – which includes a BJP Minister – passed a resolution against it. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) when it visited the Northeast to take aboard the public’s opinions received several memorandums against the Bill. The result was that the Bill was not pushed during the Monsoon Session.

The reason for the entire northeast being hostile towards the Bill is the fear in the minds of many that the Bill would result in increased migration from Bangladesh that could outnumber the local communities. Further, in an electoral democracy, numbers determine the leaders. Thus, the fear is to be rendered powerless in one’s own homeland.

This bill is an attack on Assamese Chauvinism and demography. Assamese people will never accept them to be a minority in their own place. Assam is itself a mini India with numerous tribes e.g. Bodo, Mishing, Rabha, Karbi, Dimasa, Hasong, etc. These tribes are very adamant about ascertaining their roots in Assam. Hindu migrants will be mainly Bengali speakers. The people of Assam will never accept the imposition of another language over and above Assamese and other tribal languages. Assam was formed based on the Assamese language and this state has been fraught with many agitations to ascertain linguistic rights for Assamese.

This doesn't mean that the people of Assam are not adopted by other linguistic groups. Historically Assam has proved that being Assamese was not defined by surname. The great proponents of the Assamese language and culture like Chandra Prasad Agarwala, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Anima Guha, Pulak Banerjee, etc. are bearing non-Assamese surnames. Co-habitation with mutual respect has been the backbone of the people of Assam.

The opposition parties have opposed the Bill as it discriminates based on religion.

.The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) walked out of the alliance with the BJP in Assam over the Bill, 2016, after failing to convince the BJP that the Bill is a threat to the state and is considered to be against the basic principles of the 1985 Assam Accord.

So, what is the difference between the Citizenship Bill and NRC? The former is trying to give access to citizenship while the latter is excluding people from it. The answer is very simple: The NRC (National Register of Citizenship) does not distinguish based on religion. Where even Muslim refugees from Bangladesh who came before 24 March 1971 are granted full citizenship. However, the same is not true about the citizenship bill.

The Assam Accord

Assam Accord, 1985 says that those people who entered Assam after 25th March 1971 should be deported to their native countries. Bangladeshi and Nepali immigrants are within the ambit of this accord.

Illegal migration has been a cause of concern for Assam for ages. Just after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, India had to intake 1 million Bangladeshi refugees, a sizeable portion of which settled in Barak Valley in Assam.

In such a situation, how can you expect that Assam will bear any more migrant influx?

We the people of this country have the right to voice our opinion against this bill. If we do not stand today we all are doomed tomorrow. It is because of the tireless work and commitments done by all our people in the past which led to the agreement and signing of the historic Assam Accord in 1985. This bill completely rejects the Assam Accord. It is a clear indication that the illegal becomes legal with the amendment of the bill in both houses.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 gives a chance to vested interest groups to spread communalism based on language and religion.

This has been happening on two fronts: One faction wants to divide Assam between Brahmaputra and Barak Valley based on linguistic preference between Bengali and Assamese. While the on-ground issue is totally different. Worldwide xenophobia is so prevalent. Assam is no different at all. Nobody wants citizenship for illegal migrants from Bangladesh. At this juncture issue should not be coloured as if it would be the victory of Brahmaputra Valley over Barak Valley.

Another faction is working to create division between Hindus and Muslims by portraying the bill as if it is for Hindus by a Hindu protectorate government. Like we opposed Rohingya's rehabilitation in India before, we are now opposing Hindu Bangladeshis too.

The concerns of Meghalaya and other northeastern states are similar to that of Assam. Nobody wants demographic change. Moreover, indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh don't want the granting of citizenship to Chakma and Hajong people who have migrated from Bangladesh due to persecution.

This bill doesn't include the Ahmadia community of Pakistan. This community has been suffering from immense persecution in their homeland because they are not recognised as Muslims. Considering our present stand, we should not advocate for their citizenship in India. But India can use some diplomacy to internationalise the issue by bringing them within the ambit of the bill.

The Assamese people can feel the heat of opposing this bill staying in Assam (Guwahati) itself. Let us take a brief walk-through of the situation.

It is a bill that allows neighboring non-Assamese people to have the citizenship of Assam. Neighboring non-Assamese means mostly Bangladeshis. It also says that the non-assamese illegal immigrants who have stayed in Assam for a certain long time, they can also now legally have citizenship of Assam.

The problem is, that Assam is a state and Bangladesh is a country The area of Bangladesh is 1, 47,570 sq-km, and Assam’s 78,438 sq-km is almost half. Assam is a state where the majority of the people are dependent on cultivation and many people belonging to BPL are working for meager wages.

On the other hand, illegal immigrants are always looking for such kind of jobs to survive and that’s how they end up entering Assam. The clear point is, that the area Assam holds, that much of land is not enough for the Assamese to build houses and cultivate, let alone give it away to some refugees. Moreover, according to the All Assam Students Union (AASU), if Bangladeshis are allowed to stay in Assam legally, their population will outnumber the Assamese population for sure in no time, which will wipe out the culture and identity of Assamese people and that’s what they are mostly concerned about. The AASU along with many other indigenous groups are protesting against this Bill. These groups have time and again warned the Central government of what Assam is going through. They criticized the government stating that the government always tries to create a solid vote bank by providing shelter to the immigrants which is a threat and a relief at the same time for them and of course will be very beneficial for the ruling government.

Every nation should have one set of rules for all citizens without discrimination. None shall be given citizenship unless their contribution towards the development of the nation is much desirable like technocrats scientists investors etc. Once we weaken the rules for one sect by one government we are keeping our door open to another undesirable sect by another government.