Consequences of agitations against CAA, NPR & NRC may be disastrous

Consequences of agitations against CAA, NPR & NRC may be disastrous

(This is Part II of the write-up in four parts on citizenship laws of India against which several political parties and Muslim outfits are agitating.

Part I – Citizenship law and March of political parties: Forward March, Left, Right, About-Turn – traces the evolution of the citizenship law since the Constitution came off into force. Link: (https://www.devendranarain.com/citizenship-law-…right-about-turn/)

Part III examines whether the battle is political or legal or both and how long it is likely to continue.

Part IV is an attempt to understand options before the Modi government)

Introduction

Yes, the campaign against CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), NPR (National Population Register) and NRC (National Register of Citizens) (acronym CNN used in subsequent paragraphs) is more dangerous than vote bank politics. The long-term consequences of a sustained campaign can be very disastrous for the country.

Vote bank politics is not a new thing in independent India. More than the British rulers, our politicians have been practising "divide and rule". The Congress party that was at the forefront of attacking the British policy is also at the forefront of following the same policy. This is evident from the history of the Congress, from blaming the RSS for the assassination of Gandhi on January 30, 1948, to Sonia Gandhi openly inciting Muslims against the CAA which does not affect them in any way. In my opinion, even the state-sponsored genocide in 1984 – the massacre of thousands of innocent Sikhs – was an attempt to divide Hindus and Sikhs.

Who are opposing CAA and NRC and why?

From July 2016 when the Constitution (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to early December 2019, there was no agitation outside Assam. Why did it erupt suddenly and that too on a large scale in December, soon after the Lok Sabha passed the Bill? Were those protesting now making preparations for something very sinister, something part of a hidden agenda? 

Those who are opposing the CNN can be divided into two broad categories: those politicians and others who are against Prime Minister Modi and BJP and (perhaps) majority of Muslims. Each group has its own reason.

Opposition by anti-Modi and anti-BJP forces

There is an informal “United Front” against the BJP in general and Prime Minister Modi in particular. A better term for the gang is “Axis Powers”. The Axis Powers of the Second World War wanted to divide the world among themselves and rule. The “Axis Powers” of Indian politics, though in minority, want to divide India among themselves. The prominent members of the “Axis” are:

 AAP

AIMIM ((led by Asaduddin Owaisi with his younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi as second-in-command)

AIMPLB

AMU

BSP

Communists (CPI as well as CPM) and their student wings (e.g. those active in JNU)

Congress 

DMK 

Film actors and others associated with film world (I don’t count them as “intellectuals”. Most of them have below-average intelligence and understanding of CAA, NPR and NRC.)

Intellectuals (in fact, wrongly counted as “intellectuals”)

IUML

 Jamia Millia

JD(S)

JD (U)

Journalists (not all of them)

NC

NCP

PDP 

RJD

Retired Civil Servants (the frustrated ones who were and are still loyal to the Congress and have not got anything from the Modi government)

SP

Shiv Sena (after forming a government with the help of Congress and NCP)

“Tukde-tukde gang”

 TRS and

Urban Naxalites.

The actual number of groups may be much larger. Out of 150 petitions filed in the Supreme Court on CAA, as many as 131 are against the Act.

The “Axis” is getting, direct as well as indirect support from Pakistan, ISI, Pakistani Jihadis, Zakir Naik and several other external sources. Whatever the “Axis Powers” say against CNN in India or abroad, becomes very useful to Pakistan in its anti-India propaganda.

While the ad hoc alliances of non-BJP political parties are formed to fight elections against the BJP or form non-BJP governments, the members of the "Axis Powers" are active all the time. Their sole purpose is to discredit the BJP and the Modi government in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular. Modi is their common enemy because they know that as long as he is Prime Minister of India, they will not get any share in power at the Centre. For everything they consider wrong in the country, they have been using all the possible means to find fault with Modi even if he has no role.

After four sticks (opposition to Rafael aircraft, triple talaq, abolition of article 370 and Ram temple in Ayodhya) failed to harm Modi and BJP, they were mighty pleased when the CAB was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2019 though it has been under consideration for more than three years. It gave the “Axis Powers” a more explosive stick. They believed it could be more effective because being a legal subject, it could be easily misinterpreted to misguide and frighten Muslims. They started shouting inside and outside the Parliament that it was aimed against Muslims because it did not cover illegal Muslim immigrants. To make their protests look constitutional, they described it as a violation of article 14 of the Constitution, an attempt to divide Hindu and Muslims and an attack on the secular character of the country. All the non-BJP Chief Ministers have declared that they would not implement CAA. To frighten the Indian Muslims more, the NPR and NRC were clubbed with the CAA. When the protests gathered momentum, other grievances such as the abolition of Article 370 and demonetisation were also added to gain more supporters.

Three State assemblies in the non-BJP ruled states have adopted resolution and West Bengal is to do so shortly though they very well know that they have no such power under the Constitution. Non-implementation of a central law amounts to not working “in accordance with the Constitution” and, legally speaking, might provide ground for imposition of the President’s rule under Article 356. While openly violating the letter and spirit of the Constitution, they are shouting that they are doing everything to save the Constitution.

In the midst of these unconstitutional decisions of the non-BJP CMs, it is a pleasant surprise that Congress lawyer Kapil Sibal and former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda have cautioned the non-BJP states that they cannot refuse to implement CAA though Sibal himself is against the CAA

All the members of the “Axis” are convincing the Muslims that while the CAA merely denied citizenship to the Muslims coming from the three countries, the NRC will deny citizenship even to the Muslims who are citizens because they will not be able to produce documents to prove their citizenship and that those declared non-citizens would be sent to detention camps.

The stand of the “Axis Powers” is not surprising. While some are facing a crisis of survival, others need opportunities to establish their leadership. Congress has the problem of survival. The narrow-minded blind followers of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty handed over India's oldest political party to Sonia Gandhi who is now mismanaging it with the help of her two children though none of them have any leadership quality. One does not become a leader merely by marriage or birth. Sonia and her children have converted the Congress party into a family business. By their foolishness and misdeeds, they have reduced the party to a minor regional player in most of the states.

Several regional leaders want to expand their “kingdoms” or “fiefdoms”. While non-Muslim parties have a large following among Hindus, they want to increase their hold over Muslims to win elections. Muslim leader like Owaisi looks at it as an opportunity to establish himself as the sole leader of Muslims. The Communists who have already become irrelevant in the country, as in other countries, are getting an opportunity to appear on TV channels to make their presence felt.

Among the “Axis Powers” also there is tough competition among the front members for the leadership of Muslims. That is why Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Arvind Kejriwal distanced themselves from a meeting called by Sonia Gandhi for a joint strategy to take on Modi and BJP.

Protests by Indian Muslims and their demands.

The "Axis Powers” succeeded in the mission of inciting the vast majority of Muslims. A large number of Muslims and their Hindu supporters organised protests in different parts of the country. The politicians supporting them gave them slogans to register their protests. Soon the protests became violent. Public and private properties were burnt, truckloads of stones were brought for attacking the police and commoners; even firearms were used. The UP police has found evidence of involvement of the fundamentalist Islamic organisation Popular Front of India (PFI). The Delhi police arrested some Bangladeshis who participated in protests against CAA. In UP alone protesters killed 18 persons and injured more than 250 policemen. The mob psychology is such that rationality is pushed aside. Rumours were spread that once the NRC is compiled, the Muslims who failed to prove their citizenship would be detained in concentration camps.

The violent phase of protests seems to be over but protests in other forms have become a daily routine. The battle is being fought in the Supreme Court of India as well as in the streets of the country.

The real motive behind these protests is much beyond what is apparent (protests against CAA, NPR and NRC). In a write-up dated January 3, 2020, in the Quint, a digital Journal, the motive is clearly spelt out: to open the doors of India to all the Muslims who are unhappy in other countries. The write-up points out that

• The random choice of only three countries in six communities violates the Constitution; the CAA leaves out the Muslims and the Jewish communities.
•  ‘Religious persecution’, occurs in other countries as well. Persecuted communities exist in China (Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims), Bhutan (Christians), Sri Lanka (Tamil Hindus) and Myanmar (Rohingya Muslims) also. The Ahmadis, in particular, have historically been persecuted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Hazaras and the Shias (which are all Muslim communities) have also been persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan. The Constitution of Pakistan explicitly declares Ahmadis as 'non-Muslims' and not a sect within Islam. Even sectarian persecution is religious persecution since the community is persecuted on account of its faith and beliefs.
•  There is no justification to give fast track citizenship in five years to only six communities from these three countries when there are others who have been in India on proven grounds of religious persecution but they will have to wait for 11 years to become citizens.
•  The CAA, on the face of it, does not apply to the existing citizens. But that doesn’t mean it won’t affect citizens. Many of us either do not have documentation to prove that we were born in India or that our parents were Indian, or that our parents moved to India in a manner that would prove that we are citizens. Some others may have lost their documentation in floods, riots or other calamities. This is where the CAA could affect citizens as well. If and when the All-India NRC comes into force, the government will ask at least some of us to ‘prove’ that we are citizens. Many Hindus and Muslims alike will not be able to provide documents to prove that they are citizens.
•  If you are a Muslim, you either prove during the NRC process that you are a citizen, or you are termed an illegal migrant. We don’t know what will happen to those who are declared illegal migrants.

Not Just illiterate women and small kids who do not even know the full form of CAA, even the educated among them do not want to accept that the CAA does not affect them. The opinions of such women and children participating in protests in Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi, as reported in certain sections of the media, are an eye-opener. One small child was heard saying that if the CAA was implemented, Modi would send him to a concentration camp where he would get only one bread every day. One illiterate woman was heard saying the CAA was for the preparation of a national register of Muslims who would be thrown out of India.

It appears that some powerful forces are backing Shaheen Bagh (in New Delhi) protests where men, women and children have, for more than a month, blocked a large area, much to the convenience of lakhs of people of the locality who have to go to their offices or schools. Such protests are being organised in other parts of the country also. While all the “Axis Powers” are supporting Shaheen Bagh protests by supplying food and blankets, according to intelligence reports, notorious anti-Indian Zakir Naik is also sending funds from abroad. It does not require much intelligence to understand that such a movement cannot be sustained without financial support.

The problem is that the Indian Muslims have not produced a single acceptable leader who is ready to say that in a country like India, Hindus and Muslims have to develop a composite culture and live together. The Muslims may be in minority in India but no country other than Indonesia, not even Pakistan, has such a large number of Muslims. In such a country, to talk of keeping Muslims away from the majority community is disastrous.

After the 1857 revolt, when the Muslims leaders realised that the days of Muslim rule were over, they started talking of preserving the identity of Muslims as separate from Hindus. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, rated as a great Muslim scholar, told the Muslims that in the post-1857 India, they had to be closer to the British rulers and, to maintain their separate identity, distinguished from the majority community. In his early days, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, member of the Congress as well as the Muslim League (for years it was permissible), did not support communalism. He left Congress over his serious differences with M. K. Gandhi because of the latter’s support to the Khilafat movement in favour of the collapsing Caliphate (caliph is temporal as well as the spiritual head of an Islamic state) of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. However, at that time Jinnah was not a big leader. After attacking Gandhi for his short-sightedness, Jinnah went back to England to resume his law practice. After years, he returned as a communal leader to lead the Muslim League and fight for a separate homeland for the Muslims.

Even the highly rated Muslim Congress leader Maulana Abul Kalam Azad did not advise the Indian Muslims to share a composite culture and live in peace with the Hindus. In a statement dated April 15, 1946 (reproduced in “India Wins Freedom”), Maulana Azad told Indian Muslims:

 “Over 90 millions in number, they (Indian Muslims) are in quantity and quality a sufficiently important element in Indian life to influence decisively all questions of administration and policy. Nature has further helped them by concentrating them in certain areas.”

“The 9 crores of Muslims constitute a factor which nobody can ignore and whatever the circumstances, they are strong enough to safeguard their own destiny.”

Today, the Owaisi brothers are also telling the Indian Muslims to fight for their identity and to force the government to accept all their demands.

Another problem that makes the task of handling the protests difficult for the central government is that while the majority of the Muslims get united to protect the interests of the community, most of the Hindus fail to see long-term consequences of the sinister designs behind protests against CNN. I have seen a large number of Hindus criticising Modi for bringing up issues like CAA that are creating tension in the country. The tragedy is that they have not seen the humiliations the minorities faced and are still facing in Pakistan. Nor do they bother to visit the refugee camps where the poor fellows are leading a miserable life.

 After Gujarat riots following the burning of a train in Godhra in 2002, when pseudo-intellectuals, pseudo-secularists and anti-Modi media were adamant to blame Hindus backed by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, they had widely circulated the photo of a young Muslim pleading for mercy with folded hands. (Later it was proved that the burning of the train followed by riots was a pre-planned conspiracy.) Today, no one bothers to circulate the photo of an old refugee woman from Pakistan pleading for mercy with folded hands.

M. K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are primarily responsible for the sufferings of the religious minorities left in Pakistan after partition.

Mountbatten advanced the date of partition and independence given by Prime Minister Attlee (March 1948) to 15 August 1947 because he (Mountbatten) was in a hurry to finish the work and return to England and his friend (rather Lady Mountbatten’s friend) Nehru was in a hurry to become Prime Minister. M. K. Gandhi who had said “partition of my dead body” only a few weeks before Mountbatten advanced the deadline, did not utter a word after the Congress accepted partition. At that stage, none of them thought of exchange of population. None of them thought of the poor wage earners (mostly Dalits), poor farmers and land-tillers who were not in a position to migrate to India. Most of them were even forced by the powerful landlords of Pakistan to stay there. Possibly, many of them believed Jinnah’s assurance of protection but Jinnah died in September 1948 and his successors did not bother to honour his assurance.

Those who are opposing the CAA, even those Hindus who are considering CAA an unnecessary law brought by Modi to disturb the peace of the country, must know certain basic facts.

• The religious minorities of Pakistan who fled that country and came to India and those who are still coming as refugees have every right to come here. For a variety of reasons, they could not exercise their right in 1947-49. Though the big Congress leaders of those days did not bother about an exchange of population, time and again they assured those religious minorities that they could come to India whenever they wished and become Indian citizens. (See Part I of the series of three articles) These refugees are exercising their rights which they could not in 1947-49.
•  80% of those who have come as refugees from Pakistan are Dalits. The rogues of our Islamic neighbours will not allow the religious minorities to live in peace and the rogues of our country do not want them to live here. Where should they go? There are several Islamic countries for Muslims but no country will accept the religious minorities of our neighbouring countries as refugees and grant them citizenship.
•  Under the CA 1955, these refugees can be granted citizenship even without the CAA, 2019 but that would be a long drawn process because the number of such refugees is very large. Special legal provisions are needed to make the task simpler and less time-consuming. Such special provisions have been made in the past also. The CAA of 1986 granted citizenship to the children of the refugees as well as illegal migrants born before July 31, 1987.
•  There is a basic difference between the religious minorities coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and the illegal Muslim immigrants living in and still coming to India. While the former came because of religious persecution, the Bangladeshi Muslims have not entered India because of religious persecution. They have come to earn money. They started coming in the 1970s and were patronised mainly by the construction companies in West Bengal who got cheaper labour. Everyone knew that they were illegal immigrants. They got political patronage from communists (when they were ruling) as well as Mamata Banerjee when she started widening her political base. According to a report in Business Standard of January 8, 2016, “World Bank data (Bilateral Remittance Matrix, 2014) show, of the $7.6 billion of outward remittances from India, 54 per cent or $4.16 billion was to Bangladesh alone in that year. Almost every year, 50-55 per cent of India’s total outward remittances are to Bangladesh” The report quoted chief executive officer at UAE Exchange, Promoth Manghat's eye-opener disclosure: “Actual outward remittances from India are much more than any official figure. Globally, Bangladesh is a major market for remittances for us. We are actively looking at starting remittance services from India to Bangladesh but regulations do not allow us to do so. We are in dialogue with the regulators.” (Obviously, more money is going through havala, a flourishing racket throughout the world.)The report also says that “In 2014, the remittances constituted 8.21 % of the GDP of Bangladesh. In January-March 2015 quarter Bangladesh earned $ 3771.16 million of remittance, which is 8.49 percent higher than the previous year. These remittances have helped Bangladesh’s economy maintain its 5.5- 6 percent GDP growth.”
•  The argument that there are victims of religious persecution in many other countries also is not without any basis. It is happening in most of the countries of the world. However, accepting the argument that India should treat the Ahmadis also like other religious minorities of Pakistan because they are not treated as Muslims in Pakistan and are prosecuted will prove very dangerous. Though the exact number is not known, there are 10-20 million Ahmadis, followers of the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, in the Islamic countries where they are persecuted. The list includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. Even in Singapore and the UK (where they have their headquarters), there are reports of their persecution. Can it be anyone’s argument that India should bring all those Ahmadis to protect their religion?
•  True, after an ordinance of 1984, Pakistan does not recognise but those requiring as Muslims but in India, they are very much treated as Muslims. In a landmark judgement on December 8, 1970 (Shihabuddin Imbichi Koya Thangal vs K.P. Ahammed Koya, citation A.I.R. 1971 Ker 206), the Kerala High Court held that ‘Ahmadis are Muslims and that they cannot be declared apostates by other Muslim sects because they hold true to the two fundamental beliefs of Islam: that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is a messenger of God.'
•  The Sunni Muslims of India who are shedding crocodile tears for the Ahmadis, do not treat them as part of the community and do not allow them to sit on the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
•  Why only the Ahmadis and other persecuted minorities listed by the Quint (mentioned earlier)? According to the National Association of Evangelicals, ‘The persecution of religious believers has become an increasingly tragic fact in today's world. In many countries, Evangelical Protestants and Catholics have become special targets of reigns of terror initiated by authorities who feel threatened by Christian faith and worship. Such authorities, often motivated by anti-Western, anti-democratic ideologies, also persecute Christians as a means of threatening the freedom of all persons subject to their authority. … Many Islamic countries, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam, Christians are persecuted.'
•  India cannot become a haven for all the persecuted religious minorities of the world. Those who subscribe to such views do not appreciate the fact that geographically and economically India is not in a position to accommodate all the persecuted minorities in the world. In fact, no country will do that. We have already enough problems on our hand. However, those pleading for the adoption of every liberal policy by the government of India are least bothered.
•  Politicians are known to take about-turn to achieve their political goal. Even then, is it not surprising that all those who till yesterday were accusing the Modi government of being anti-Muslim and intolerant, are today asking the same Modi government to include Muslims also in the CAA? Obviously, they were making false allegations against the Modi government.
•  If the demands of the opposition politicians, especially the Muslim leaders, is accepted and India opens its doors to all the Muslims who are allegedly being persecuted in different countries, the Muslim population will grow at a very fast rate. I cannot say whether India will ever become a Muslim majority country, the increase in the Muslim population will definitely change the demography of West Bengal where the Muslim population is increasing at a fast rate. Of the estimated 20 million Bangladeshi Muslims living illegally in India, 10 million are in West Bengal alone. According to the 2011 Census of India, the state has over 24.6 million Muslimse. 27.01% of the state's population. Muslims form the majority of the population in three districts: Murshidabad, Malda and Uttar Dinajpur.
•  Tme pro-illegal immigrant policy of Mamata Banerjee may make West Bengal a Muslim majority state. If that happens, there will be demand for one more partition of India. situation?

To conclude, it is impossible to accept the demands of the “axis powers’. The acceptance of the demand will prove dangerous for India.

Wait for Part III of the series in which I will examine whether the battle is political or legal or both and how long it is likely to continue.

Devendra Narain

 @narain41

PS

The latest and the most dangerous member join the “United Front” is a JNU student Sarjeel Imam.

I have replaced the term “United Front” by “Axis Powers”

 January 26, 2020