POLITICISING ASYLUM

Privileging non-Muslim refugees, the Citizenship Amendment Bill threatens to alter the secular foundations of the Indian State and reignites ethnic tensions in the Northeast

- Kaushik Deka

On December 9, when the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), 2019, was introduced in the Lok Sabha, thousands of people from all walks of life thronged the streets at several places in Assam, in a spontaneous protest against what they believe is a design to destroy their land, language and identity. Two days later, when the bill was finally made into an Act by Parliament, Assam and parts of the Northeast were literally burning. Curfew was imposed, army was called in and internet services suspended. Meanwhile, the new amendment grabbed the national discourse as the contentious law has raised many questions about violations of constitutional provisions and India’s commitment to secularism.

The CAB’s main aim, ostensibly, is to grant citizenship to minority refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian faiths. Refugees who qualify on the above criteria and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, can apply for citizenship. Also, now any legal proceeding pending against such ‘illegal immigrant’ applicants stands ‘abated’.

AN INTERNAL PARTITION?

India has a long history of giving shelter to refugees who have faced atrocities elsewhere, but the CAB has attracted strong opposition as it singularly excludes Muslims from its ambit. “Not only is the bill discriminatory, it wreaks havoc on the very foundations of our Constitution,” Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said in the Lok Sabha. “This is a step towards forming a ‘Hindu rashtra’, as imagined by the RSS and BJP.”