Events & Issues
New
Delhi, 28 June 2018
Migration & Citizenship
ASSAM, A CRITICAL CASE
By Dr S Saraswathi
(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)
The deadline for the final draft of the
National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam set as 30 June 2018 is nearing
and once again several issues surrounding migration and citizenship have burst
out.
A few days back, students of Dibrugarh
University declared they would prevent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal from
entering the alma mater until the Union Government scrapped the Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill, 2016 now under consideration. It is also reported in some
sections of the media that he would willingly step down if he could not protect
the interests of the people of Assam.
An executive order of the Home Ministry
issued in 2015 relaxed the provisions for persecuted religious minorities from
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan from entering and staying in India
without proper documents. There are about 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee
settlements.
For about 28 per cent of Assam’s population
who are Bengali-speaking, the proposed Amendment of the Citizenship Act is
crucial. They do not figure in the first updated NRC published in December 2017
implying thereby that they would lose their citizenship by end of June. They
will have to prove their Indian citizenship to get enrolled in the Register.
The omission includes 15 of 126 MLAs of Assam.
The Assam Government introduced a new rule
making siblings of those marked foreigners ineligible for inclusion in updated
NRC. It has also been sustained by the Guwahati High Court. Bengali Hindus are, therefore, worried about
their future in Assam. The rule cannot be deemed as harsh as the attempt to
separate children from migrant parents that was blocked in the US or the
forceful advise of the US President that “people must simply be stopped at the
border and told they cannot come into the US illegally”. But still, it betrays
departure from traditional generosity of Indians in dealing with migrants.
There are bound to be differences among the people of Assam over adopting a
strong stand on the migrant problem.
The Amendment Bill proposes that six
“persecuted minorities” – Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, and
Buddhists – from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who came to India before
31st March 2014, may not be treated as illegal migrants and seeks to
grant them citizenship. It will mean that non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh
will get citizenship of India which is contrary to the Assam Accord of 1985
that ended the long anti-foreigner agitation in Assam. It has raised protests
from large sections of indigenous people on the ground that the move would make
them a minority in their own State.
The Assam Accord has put the cut-off date as
24th March 1971 for citizenship. Those who entered after this date
had to be tracked down and deported. It also provided for sealing of
India-Bangladesh border. The extension of the cut-off date by over 40 years
proposed in 2016 Amendment Bill would benefit several thousand migrants.
Assamese are once again concerned about employment prospects – a worry that is
bigger than their worry about the plight of their kith and kin abroad.
It is a complex issue involving people’s
livelihood, human rights, nationhood and citizenship rights, and also relations
with neighbouring countries. It is an issue in which citizenship and
politico-legal interests are not in harmony with subjective factors like common
religion, language, race, etc.
Any proposal coming from outsiders (including
the Union Government) is not likely to please all the interested parties
concerned in Assam. We have to find the most acceptable and least offensive
formula. At the same time, the broader issues of nationhood and citizenship
have to be kept in mind. The NRC, intended to cover the entire nation, is being
prepared mainly for Assam under the amended sub-rules of Citizenship.
In the North-East Region, there are both
migrants and refugees. Migrants do not enjoy protection and/or privileges under
international law while refugees do. They move from place to place within a
country or between countries by choice in response to pull and push factors and
not under direct pressure of any
persecution in their place like refugees. The receiving countries are free to
legislate on migration and deal with migrants according to their own law.
Refugees, on the contrary, have no choice in most cases, as they literally flee
from their place to escape from some unlivable conditions.
Confusion over migrant and refugee status is
a historic factor intensified in the influx of continuous stream of people from
West Asia and Africa into Europe in recent years. Similar confusion in lesser
degree exists in migrants in India also ever since the days of Partition.
Unfortunately, the plight of migrants and
refugees is something to be experienced to be understood. So also, the problems of host States and
communities who have to accommodate the uninvited guests are not fully
comprehended by people living far away. In tackling such a problem, a heavy
responsibility rests on concerned governments to approach the problem without
violating the Constitution and laws and without affecting national interests or
human rights and relationships.
In fact, identification of illegal migrants
had always been difficult. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals)
Act 1983 had to be annulled in 2005. The All Assam Students Union and 27 other
organisations of indigenous communities are said to be opposed to the Amendment
of the Citizenship Act. Political consequence on the alliance in power in Assam
is also a factor that will play a role.
There is no provision for citizenship on
religious basis in India. The Constituent Assembly rejected such an idea. The
Asom Gana Parishad does not agree to grant citizenship based on religion as
proposed in the Amendment. But, under prevailing conditions, India cannot open
its land to any community suffering persecution in their land.
Entitlements deriving from citizenship are
given to individuals irrespective of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of
birth. But these are in reality diminished by undue pressure of various
authorities and the bondage of individuals to birth-based attachments like clan
and community. Some thinkers distinguish
between substantive citizenship and formal citizenship. Citizenship is not just
political; it is a social and moral function. It is a serious issue in areas
near international borders involving the security of a nation.
India is home for thousands of migrants and
refugees from neighbouring countries arriving mostly in search of decent
livelihood and peaceful life. They are unlike Indian migrants going abroad for employment
who comprise from unskilled plantation labourers to highly qualified technical
personnel.
The North-East has always been facing the
problem of “outsiders”. Every State in the region is following its own way of
dealing with migrant workers. Even a suggestion to grant State citizenship
apart from national was mooted in Assam several years ago. In Manipur, for
instance, the Meitis who are the most powerful group are demanding Inner Line
Permits to regulate influx of migrants from other States.
The Assam problem cannot be solved by organising
bandhs. National security has to be our primary concern while humanitarian
considerations cannot be ignored. India has to maintain its moral stature and
safeguard its material interests.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|