Open Forum
New
Delhi, 16 August, 2018
Politics Over NRC
UNFORTUNATE DEVELOPMENT
By Dr. S. Saraswathi
(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)
A national issue, the NRC in Assam, that has
to be approached with long-term national welfare and security interests as the
object and decided with due consideration to the manifold consequences of this
demographic development is sadly entangled in local communal, linguistic,
electoral calculations.
In fact, with the BJP firmly committed to
completing and releasing the National Register of Citizens and TMC leader Mamata
Banerjee firm on opposing it as anti-Bengali and a communal venture, there has
arisen a crucial issue for 2019 electoral battle an bitter verbal warfare to
polarize voters.
Recently, BJP President Amit Shah has asserted
that the ongoing process of compilation of the NRC would not be stopped for
opposition by the TMC, and challenged Bengal Chief Minister Mamata to stop the process.
This, after she said, “The NRC is being done with a political motive. We will
not let this happen. They (the BJP) are trying to divide the people. There will
be a civil war, bloodbath in the country.”
The words are too strong for normal criticism
of a government policy and its execution by an Opposition party however deep
the differences may be. They spoil the atmosphere for discussions and rule out
meeting points. What provoked such a strong reaction beyond inter-party
animosities is not clear. What is obvious to the lay public is total lack of
willingness on the part of political leaders to give serious thought to all the
dimensions of the problem and find a solution that serves the nation’s
interests, which include national security and peace, and friendly relations
with neighbouring countries.
Truly, political parties seem to have lost
their balance to deal with problems dispassionately delinked from their sole
agenda of winning voters. As a result, they tend to rouse passions, and incite mob
action instead of creating awareness and understanding of public affairs in the
common people.
As part of 1951 Census operation, a national
register of citizens was created that contained details of every person --
name, age, father’s/husband’s name, houses or holdings belonging to them, means
of livelihood, etc. Assam had experienced large-scale migration of people from
East Pakistan during 1947 Partition and from Bangladesh after its creation in
1971 causing several problems for the residents of the State.
The NRC is a “positive” list of citizens who
have been able to prove their residence in Assam prior to March 24, 1971 or
linkages to a pre-1971 ancestor. It is also clarified that those left out will
not be deported forthwith, but can be declared foreigner only after judicial
scrutiny -- meaning that deletion is not
instantaneous or automatic. Those whose names are missing in the list and those
who dispute the inclusion of some others may move the Foreigner’s Tribunal
within 60 days. The modalities for claiming inclusion in the Register by those
left out have been worked out.
Migrants from East Bengal and later Pakistan
have included a large number of Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims. Thereby,
linguistic angle, which is not a criterion for nationhood or citizenship, is
added to the issue about foreigners by interested political forces.
As is well-known by now, the Assam Movement
against foreigners erupted in 1979 with the sudden inflation in electoral rolls
by registration of “illegal migrants” from Bangladesh and led to the Assam
Accord between Government of India, AASU and AGP leaders. In 1983 the illegal
Migrants Determination by Tribunal (IMDT) Act was passed, which put the onus of
proving citizenship which vested with the migrant under the Foreigner’s Act of
1946 was changed as the responsibility of the complainant to prove that the
migrant was a foreigner.
In 2005, the Supreme Court declared the IMDT
Act as unconstitutional and asked the Assam Government to constitute tribunals
under the Foreigners’ Act to decide on “illegal migrants”. However, the process being complicated,
determination of foreigners went slow and few were actually deported and many
were reported to be “missing”.
The NRC, being conducted under the Supreme
Court, is a product of the Assam Accord. It is delayed so long that even the
Congress and its allies seem to have forgotten that the Congress government was
the principal partner of the Accord. Time cannot take away the importance of
vital issues, but can only add urgency. Citizenship part of the Accord is
becoming more and more important with the passage of time. The problem has
already spread to more States in the North-East region due to easy infiltration
possible through our international borders and free movement between States in
India.
The Assam Accord had been practically
ineffective in preventing illegal migrants. Bangladeshi infiltration became a
principal issue in Assam State election in 2011. It was even said that if this
was not stopped, the State of Assam would definitely get a Bangladeshi CM
within 10 years!
The question of foreigners has become complicated
due to electoral politics and vote bank concept. National interests have become
secondary to party interests and electoral prospects. The TMC considered the problem of
infiltrators entering into the voter list as a “very serious matter” and was
vociferous in 2005 demanding discussion on the issue in Parliament. Bengal was
then ruled by CPM and TMC was in Opposition. Today, its stand is completely
reversed as the ruling party.
The nation has a legitimate right to know the
ground for such a drastic change in a ruling party’s stand on such a crucial
national issue in order to weigh the arguments on both sides. Party positions
may change, but should be with legitimate reasons made known to people. It will
help the party gain more support.
At some point, a fair exercise to determine
genuine citizens and foreigners has to be undertaken, particularly in areas
open to illegal immigration. At no time there is going to be consensus on the
issues involved given the party politics as it has developed in India. The
sooner the process is gone through, the better for the country.
One may recall the provisions of the
Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act 1950 which provided for expulsion of
foreigners from Assam if their stay was detrimental to the interests of the
general public of India or of any section thereof or any Scheduled Tribes in
Assam.
Doubts and fears may arise because of high
chances of mistakes and difficulties in getting corrections. For, cases of
deletion of names in electoral rolls and Census registers are common in many
places and are faced even by persons residing in the same place for several
years.
Our concept of human rights is very advanced
today that rightly we tend to be cautious and accurate so as to serve the
interests of the nation without violating the rights of any person. The nation
expects a genuine unbiased register and a smooth process of its finalisation. Therefore,
the foremost task is to liberate the NRC from the unfortunate development of
party politics over it and adopt a national outlook. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|