Kannan starts the talk by detailing NRC. Any citizen's govt interactions are based on documents. A lot of Indians can't afford to carry an official document. So he asks, Should we throw out Women, Dalits, Tribe, Landless laborers, etc. without documents from India? Govt may not throw them out immediately, but citizenship will be taken away. The citizenship can be claimed back after legal follow-ups. There will be claims we'll hear in future like, a specific party granted citizenship to many from whom they stole the citizenship! Does the govt has the right to steal citizenship from a person even for a night?
As we all know, a slight name change in an official document is miserable to fix at times. Citizens will be made to believe that they made a huge mistake by not having the right documents, whereas it is the responsibility of the govt! Instead of govt having proper tools to prove citizenship of a person, govt is making the proof - a problem of the citizen.
NRC is anti-poor, anti-women, anti-tribe, etc. hence there wasn't a mention of anti-Muslim till now!
With Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, non-Muslims (Hindus, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, are treated as refugees & not an illegal immigrant.
Take the case of a non-Muslim (esp. poor, women, etc.) living in India who has been struggling to prove citizenship due to NRC. If they prove that they are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, they will be treated as refugees. Eventually they are granted citizenship.
On the other hand, a Muslim (esp. poor, women, etc.) living in India who has been struggling to prove citizenship due to NRC will be considered illegal immigrants & will be sent to detention centers.
In Assam with 3 crores population, govt spent 16,000 crores rupees, 50,000 employees effort for 6 years in implementing NRC to produce the list of illegal immigrants. 8,000 crores the citizen spent to prove their citizenship by visiting legal offices, appeals, etc. Supreme Court-monitored panel published the final NRC leaving out over 19 lakh people. The list had 11-12 lakhs Hindus, 5 lakhs of Muslims as illegal immigrants.
Assam NRC list might get rejected! Because the promise of deporting 40 lakh looks hollow in the view of the 19 lakh. With 11-12 lakhs Hindus getting deported isn't exciting the politically! If a party rolls out NRC across nation with same rules as that of Assam, large numbers of Hindus will lose voting rights! By introducing CAA first & then NRC, politics might be to mitigate that risk!
- When citizenship is getting questioned, we can't suppress the feelings of the people. Like what is happening in Kashmir is what is happening at a national level now with CAA/NRC/NPR. Like Beef-ban, Demonization, GST, Kashmir, Assam, Economics slow down, etc. This govt lacks execution capabilities which I wrote a long time ago (To elect in 2019).
- We're here in India with whatever documentation is a good proof for citizenship. We should think about how to deal with that & live in harmony. This touches upon a key point I wrote last time (what is the fun in dividing a country?), which is why to classify or divide people in name of religion/nation etc. Figure out a means to live harmoniously.
Hats off to Kannan for a well articulated explanation! We all need to have a dialogue about NRC, CAA, NPR, etc. in ways to improve the nation & not to show any parties bad!