CAA & NRC acronyms have driven the country to turmoil last two weeks. Protests keep spreading across states. Students are at the forefront leading the protests. 24 people have lost their lives so far, as I write this, across the country. Teargas shells thrown in the university library. There are claims and counterclaims as to who started the violence first. Internet shutdown has become a norm now. Metro stations locked down to stop movement of people. Government clamping down on population with heavy police force in the name of safety, security, and imposing section 144 to stop even peaceful protests. Using disproportionate force including firing causing casualty to clampdown dissent, this is not the first government to use, earlier governments, both state and central, are guilty too. Except that this has been taken few notches higher by current establishment, both central and state. We keep getting contradicting statements from ministers and party mouth pieces. Need of the hour is to answer the dissenting opinions on CAA and NRC. Could be a town hall kind of meeting. Instead  we get statements like “we can identify the protesters by their clothes itself” from those in power that adds fuel to the fire. Central and State ministers from the same party contradict each other, one says nothing has been decided on NRC, while the other says NRC will happen. As I write this, I don’t get the feel that the government is in a mood to reconsider its decision on CAA and NRC.

Just on CAA, the question is why decide / select based on nationality and religion? Why only selected neighbors? Why exclude, for example, Srilanka and Burma with whom we share borders with? What is the motive to color the persecution? When CAA and NRC are seen together, then it opens up many questions and fears. To understand where the fear and in turn the protests are coming from, you need to see Assam NRC, CAA, and nationwide NRC in sequence. Then you connect the dots with various statements, termites, infiltrators, detention camps, that keeps coming from the ruling party officials, and exclusions in CAA. Now then it would be easy to appreciate why the fear is real and not an imagined one.  

NRC approach seems to be similar to demonetization, doing something without thinking through. Whole population, including you and me, will be moved out of the circle, citizenship circle, first. Then you need to provide documents to prove your citizenship. If the documents get accepted you can get inside the citizenship circle. If you don’t have documents to prove your citizenship, there is a talk of local witness. Considered Guilty till you prove your Innocence. Of course, we need to wait for the details on which documents are acceptable to prove the citizenship, and who will be considered as credible witnesses (in case of no documents). No documents, no credible witnesses, you are not on NRC. Similar to demonetization, I am very sure, we will get new process updates, new guidelines, on a daily basis. What works, what doesn’t work, what is allowed, what is not allowed, etc. If you are left out of NRC, you can still get on it if you fall on the right side of CAA, that is you are from that list of selected nations and religion and you can prove it. If no, unless more inclusions happen, bad luck.

CAA by design is discriminatory in its nature by its selective inclusion and exclusion. Undermines the tenets of our Constitution. CAA and NRC together make it toxic. Now you may say, you are connecting two different things, CAA and NRC. For those in doubt, first we will pass the CAB and ensure all the refugees from neighboring nations get the Indian citizenship. After that NRC will be made and we will detect and deport every infiltrator from our motherland, is the statement from our HM. It is one thing to make magniloquent statements will weed all the infiltrators out.Who is an infiltrator or a termite? Is that anyone who can’t produce a document to prove his or her citizenship? Based on where they came from? Based on their birth which they don’t have any control over? These are legitimate questions, not fear. Not getting a clear answer, leads to confusion, fear, and trauma.

Assuming the government is listening to the protesters and open to suggestions, all it needs to do is make CAA non-discriminatory. Base it just on persecution (political, ethnic, gender, religion, …) with no nationality or religion bias. On NRC, if it is going to be carried out nationwide, government first needs to come out with a process that should be driven by innocent until proven guilty principle and not the other way around. Government also needs to get a better estimate on number of illegal immigrants in India – unconfirmed estimates vary from 20-25 million. It is plain reckless and irresponsible to make 1.3 billion people run around to prove their citizenship and leave them at the mercy of local officials, to identity 2% of the population which is concentrated in handful of border states.

Our national rhetoric seems to be imprisoned by events of the past. Knowing history is not just to appreciate or not to repeat the mistakes, but also to be aware that our thoughts and decisions are not prejudiced and constrained by it. Why let our imagination be burdened by the past? The decisions we make now are for tomorrow, to take us, our country in to the future. 100 years from now, how do we want our future generations remember us? For building detention camps? Or for how we conquered our biases paving a progressive path for them?