By Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec 18 :Over 200 million Indian Muslims are facing the most the difficult and testing time ever since India’s independence in 1947 after the government enacted a divisive and discriminatory law which might render millions of Muslims stateless.
The Indian government is led by right wing Hindu nationalist party BJP – a political front of RSS which believes in Hindu supremacy.
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
Under the CAA, the Indian government will grant citizenship to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddh, Jain and Christian communities who have come from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution in the three-aforementioned countries. However, it excludes Muslims.
Referring to illegal migrants from Bangladesh as “termites”, Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also BJP president, said his party would throw them out after coming to power at the Centre for a second consecutive term.
Last year, National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has excluded 19.06 lakh residents of the state of which approximately 6 lakh are Bangla speaking Muslims.
The new law will grant citizenship to 12 lakh Bangla speaking Hindu while 6 lakh Bengali Muslims will be declared as ‘stateless citizens’ by the government.
Thousands of such Assamese are living in detention camps including Muslims, but after the Citizenship Act all Hindus will be released from the camps and granted citizenship.
National Register of Citizens (NRC)
NRC aims to register all citizens of India in a national register and requires every person in India to prove that they have a right to be in India using documentary evidence. However ID cards and tax slips are not enough and the documentary evidence requires proving ancestry using historical documents.
The NRC was specifically made for the state of Assam, but Home Minister Amit Shah declared during a parliamentary session that the register would be extended to the entire country.
If a nationwide NRC implemented, millions of people will fail to prove their citizenship. They will be detained and taken to those detention centres, as it is happening in Assam. After that, the Ministry of External Affairs will get in touch with the concerned nations. If the details of the detainees are matched and accepted by the concerned nations, deportations will follow otherwise they will declared stateless.
CAA and NRC, a lethal combo
Since millions of poor Muslims don’t have papers of land properties, government jobs or insurance papers etc which are the few documents to prove their nationality. On other side Hindus, Sikhs. Buddhists, Jains and Christians will be granted citizenship even without any document under the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Over 1000 prominent Indian personalities including right activists writers, film-makers, theatre directors, academics, scientists, lawyers and civil servants have urged signed a statement condemning the CAA and made a passionate appeal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the discriminatory law.
After the Citizenship Amendment Act, people from all faiths especially university students have started protesting against discriminatory law. The police are trying to suppress their voices by using brutal force killing several peaceful protesters and injuring thousands.