The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was brought as a Citizenship Amendment Bill for the purpose of amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before 31 December 2014, eligible for Indian citizenship. It also seeks to relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalisation from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants. Immediate beneficiaries of the Act, according to IB records, will be just over 30,000 people, but how far is it true when the local population of Nagaland and other neighbouring states have been surrounded by millions of Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrants?
Moreover, under NRC both Hindu and Muslim illegal migrants from 3 notified countries (majority of them from Bangladesh) have been trapped, but now, due to Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, Hindu illegal immigrants will be able to escape and apply for citizenship citing grounds of ‘persecution’ which they can never ever be able to prove and government has neither devised any machinery to do background check of such applicants nor to verify the persecution stories that they would come up with. On the other hand, Muslim Illegalimmigrants will still be trapped in the LAW and face prosecution under Foreigners Act and Passport Act. If it is not discrimination, then what it is? This nation was not built for Hindus, each one of us have equal right over this land and nation. Also, we people from the northeast do not know this Hindu-Muslim game, what we know is we are suffering from illegal immigrants and their ever increasing population which is threatening to our culture, language, life and overall survival as people of this free nation.
Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that is now an Act; is perhaps another one of the contentious and controversial bill like GST, Demonetisation, Art. 370, Triple Talaq and also the Uniform Civil Code (Which I am sure is kept hidden the pipeline). Considering the nature of Bill presented before the parliament by the present government clearly indicates its social and political agenda. On the fateful day of 11th of December, 2019 this Citizenship Amendment Bill was given FREE passage by the Rajysabha. The Bill was passed amidst the sorrows, cries, protests in different parts of the northeast India. This is how I learned how democracy can be murdered.
This demonic Act is nothing but a smart conspiracy to divide the citizens of India on religious grounds. It is in the sense of modern day that this Act propagates the two nation theory. The rise of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 has a potential to destroy the very core foundation that the nation was built on i.e Equality, fraternity and secularism. It will have adverse impact on the demographics, social, cultural and economic life of the local indigenous of the North-eastern States. No state will be able to escape from the wrath of the Act. It will also strain the age long Hindu-Muslim relation and last but not the least it would also strain the bilateral relations of India with the three aforementioned States Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh on the issue of an unsubstantiated allegations of Religious persecution taking place in their respective Countries, hence, a threat to the international image of India.
Whilst Understanding that this is a Hindu Majority nation, we should also delve deeper in the history of modern India and understand that the great visionary leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. B.R Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru to name few who stood firm and strong on the principles of a free India that believed in emancipating the people from all social evils and who worked tirelessly for a united India. Sadly this is an era of Bhakts (blind devotees who surrendered their ability to see, to think, to listen, to speak and to question) and not the era of ushering peace, prosperity and development that the founders of this great nation envisaged upon. Now we can understand why we say there’s a flaw in “DEMOCRACY”, now I know why Socrates hated Majoritarian Democracy.
“Majority Always Wins” Is what we have learnt since our childhood and when it comes into effect in the political realms that’s when we realise that this is a great threat to fragile unity of the nation. The BJP under the wings of The RSS which has an ultimate dream to build a Hindu Rashtra on the principles of ONE NATION, ONE LEADER, ONE RELIGION, ONE LAW, ONE CULTURE, ONE LANGUAGE have done nothing great for the betterment of the common good. They hampered the country’s economic growth, unemployment rates are ever increasing, high rise in the prices of goods and commodities, ever rising of crimes perpetuated against the Women, downtrodden communities, religious minorities and so on. Now in this dark hour the nation stands divided. Will BJP repeal this bill under the pressure of ‘Public Mandate’ that nulls the Constitutional values, BEFR 1873 and true spirit of Citizenship Act 1955 which never ever extended citizenship rights based on ‘Religion’ ? Or Will BJP Divide the Nation? Future is unknown, however this Act now will be challenged in the Supreme Court. What will be the mandate? I don’t wish to think, however, as a human being and a citizen of free and secular India the constitution of which guarantees me the Right to Free Speech under Art. 19, I will keep on recording my dissent, I will keep on asking questions, in the interest of today and future of generations to come. My ancestors fought for what they believe in, they fought for land, fought for Nagas, fought for Justice, this is what I learnt from my forefathers. Today the battle grounds might have been changed, but the ‘spirit’ of awakened Nagas is the same. KUKNALIM!
K KALUTO CHISHI, BA 2ND SEM , POLITICAL SCIENCE (HON) TETSO COLLEGE, DIMAPUR, NAGALAND.
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