CAA

Why you should oppose CAA if you care for the Idea of India

Citizenship Amendment Act has been passed by the Parliament of India and it has come into effect from 10^th January 2020. This has opened a window for the illegal immigrants to acquire Indian citizenship. It has several implications and I will take them up one by one. 

As per Sec.2 of CAA 2019, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Buddhist and Jain immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who are exempted from the application of Sec.3 of Passport Act 1920 and Foreigners Act 1946, will not be treated as ‘illegal migrants’. 

As per Sec.3 of CAA 2019, migrants of above mentioned six religious communities from the above mentioned three neighbouring countries, fulfilling the conditions under Passport Act and Foreigners Act and relevant Rules, are eligible to apply for Indian Citizenship. 

So far ‘illegal immigrants’ were not eligible to apply for Indian citizenship. Illegal migrants have been defined in the CAA 2003 as those migrants who have entered India without legal travel documents/permits as well as those also who entered with valid travel documents/permits but have not returned afterwards and have been residing in India even after the expiry of visa/permit. CAA 2003 also made it explicit that illegal immigrants are not eligible to apply for Indian citizenship. 

You must be bored reading all these provisions of CAA. Moreover, I am not saying in clear words why you should oppose CAA, right? 

That is the problem. CAA 2019 is cryptic and it looks innocuous. And perhaps it is intentional. I see country divided over CAA but there are very few people who actually understand CAA 2019 and its implications. But when you combine CAA 2019 with CAA 2003 and amendments in Passport (Entry) Act 1920 and Foreigners Act 1946 made in 2015 a clear picture will emerge. 

Without wasting your precious time let me speak in clear words now. Amendments made in Passport Act and Foreigners Act in 2015 says that migrants coming from Bangladesh and Pakistan (Afghanistan was also added in this list in 2016) who belong to six religious communities viz. Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Parsis and have entered India before 31^st Dec 2014 as a result of persecution (or the fear of persecution) will not be treated as illegal migrants and provisions of identification and deportation will not apply to them.  

This was the real deal – the Amendment of 2015. Millions of non-Muslim migrants who were illegal immigrants as per Indian laws were now elevated to the category of legal migrants and this made them eligible for Indian citizenship. Muslim migrants were still illegal immigrants. Discrimination on religious lines started in 2015. CAA 2019 has only taken it forward. I am surprised why there was no protest then and why all the protests are seen only now!

With the 2015 Amendments in Passport Act and Foreigners Act India has accepted all these migrants and has offered them a home. So those who are rejoicing today should have rejoiced in September 2015 when these Amendments were notified. Similarly, those who are protesting today should have started their protest in 2015. These migrants were made eligible for Indian citizenship in 2015 itself. 

Then what was the need for CAA 2019? And why people are protesting now?

It is difficult to understand why there was no street protest in 2015. Those who are protesting against religious discrimination they should have started their protest in 2015. That was the actual discrimination. And those who are protesting because granting citizenship to all the migrants will be a burden on economic resources or will destroy the purity of their culture or heritage they should also have started protest in 2015. Because with those amendments these migrants were eligible to apply for Indian citizenship. CAA 2019 has only reduced the time limit for naturalisation. Earlier, a foreign migrant to India could have applied for Indian citizenship on the principle of Naturalisation after staying in India for 11 years and now with CAA government has reduced this time period to five years for the migrants coming from above mentioned three countries who belong to the six religious communities.

Ok. So once the basics of CAA are clear then let me come to its implications for our society. 

India is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees. This is for obvious reasons as in 1947 after Independence and Partition which led to large scale relocation of population across borders India was not in a position to identify refugees and adhere to the principles of relief to refugees. Therefore refugee word does not appear anywhere in Indian laws. We only use ‘migrants’.

Conceptually speaking, all the migrants who have been forced out of their native land as a result of ethnic, religious or linguistic persecution are refugees. 

2015 Amendment in Passport Act and Foreigners Act exempts all the migrants of six religious communities from these three countries who have entered India as a result of religious persecution (or a fear of religious persecution) to be treated as illegal migrants. Provisions of Passport Act and Foreigners Act and relevant rules for the identification and deportation of such migrants will not apply to them. So basically all the benefits of 2015 Amendments as well as CAA 2019 are for those migrants who have come to India as a result of religious persecution. 

Now let’s see who all can benefit from these provisions. If we go by our Acts and Rules then migrants of religious persecution should benefit. How many such migrants (coming from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan) do we have in India? Government of India has never published any official figures. We have some independent estimates made by some researchers and some organisations. Let us take the estimates of UNHCR.

As per the estimates of UNHCR (2018) there are less than 10 religious refugees in India who have come from Pakistan. Really, less than 10! These estimates further say that there are hardly any religious refugees have come to India from Bangladesh. All the migrants from Bangladesh (and they are definitely in tens of millions) have infiltrated into India for better economic prospects. Further, there are no estimates on the Afghan national who have entered India as a result of religious persecution. And in any case as per official figures less than 7500 Afghan nationals are residing in India illegally. 

So what does it mean? Are messrs Narendra Modi and Amit Shah concerned about such negligible numbers of refugees??? Answer would be a definite, NO. There is a greater design in this. Let us understand. 

Assuming that all migrants of these six religious communities apply for citizenship how will it be judged whether they have come to India as a result of religious persecution or not? Will burden of proof will be on the applicant or will State assume that responsibility? And how will it be established that the applicant actually migrated because of actual or feared religious persecution? How long will this process take?

I am leaving you to make all the guess and come to an answer.

Do you see anything getting established? 

So what will be the end result? Citizenship for all? Or another carrot dangling before millions of these migrants for decades and flourishing of vote bank politics? And what about Muslims who have come as illegal migrants? Will they be deported back to their country of origin? Or will we lock them in the ghettos of detention centres?

This brings us to another important concern. Irrespective of religious persecution, how many total migrants from these three countries are residing in India at present? Again we don’t have any official figure. But there are several estimates available. Some estimates put this figure to as low as 6 millions. But most estimates put this figure between 21 and 24 million.  These numbers are definitely huge. Do we have enough resources available to meet the demands of this extra population? And mind you these people are already on Indian soil and well integrated in the informal or formal economy of the country. What will change after granting citizenship to these migrants is their rights. Once Indian citizen they can rightfully claim a job, a school, a hospital, a pension and so on. So are we ready? After all government will start receiving applications of citizenship soon. 

I have talked about total migrants. But citizenship is available only to those who are not illegal migrants. So let’s find out how many of them have been elevated to the category of legal migrants. 

As of today we don’t have an all India figure for legal and illegal migrants on religious lines. But we can get some idea if we analyse the case of Assam. Why Assam? Well, as you have noticed I haven’t used another acronym which is synonymous with the CAA protest and that is NRC. Without going into details of NRC I will continue our discussion by using the results of NRC in Assam. Assam is the only State which has taken up the exercise of NRC. (There is a separate history to it but a discussion on that would be a digression for our present cause. So more on this later.)

Through NRC citizens and non-citizen residents are being identified and counted. NRC result of Assam says that 1.9 million residents of Assam are non-citizens. So they are definitely migrants. But what about the division of legal and illegal migrants? Well, out of total 1.9 million migrants, more than 1.5 million are legal migrants. So less than 20% Bangladeshi migrants of Assam are illegal. As the result of CAA 2019 Govt of India has decided to accept 80% Bangladeshi migrants in Assam and all of them will be called Indians soon. So what happens to the struggle of early 1980s in Assam? What will happen to Assam Accord? How will Assam accept CAA?

If you understand the anti-CAA protest of Assam then you will understand that all anti-CAA protest is not only on the religious lines. 

Condition in other bordering States of Tripura and Mizoram are not much different. 

But the most important piece in this puzzle is West Bengal. What about Bengal? Various estimates project the figure of total migrants in West Bengal to more than 15 million. This figure may be anywhere between 1.5 Crore to 2 Crore, or may be even more. How many legal and illegal migrants? If Assam is any indication then more than half of these migrants have become legal after CAA. Can our economy and polity absorb them and grant them full rights as citizens? Moreover, there are countless instances of Muslims acquiring new Hindu names and Adhar card and voter identification card in new name. Can you prove now that they are illegal migrants?

Now let us turn our attention to other aspects. 

India has always been a gracious host for all cultures and all ethnicities since time immemorial. Perhaps Modi ji attempted to take a new leap in the same direction. But alas, his agenda of polarisation of votes for immediate electoral interests has done an irreparable loss to India’s image rather than enhancing it. By selecting these three countries and leaving out Muslims he has brought the Two Nation Theory of Jinnah to another ignominious height. Till today India had not accepted that theory and we always found ways to not only believe in the idea of India as enshrined in our freedom struggle but we also have been successful in living like India as enshrined in the Constitution. CAA changes all that. 

CAA will have implications for not only demographics but also for the politics and diplomacy in South Asia.