Enemy Property Bill: In The Name Of The Father

As parliament debates what ‘enemy property’ means, is the Union Government setting aside rights of bona fide Indian citizens?

- Kunal Pradhan

Is Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan of Mahmudabad, a former lawmaker who chose to remain an Indian citizen even when his father emigrated to Pakistan in 1957, an ‘enemy’ of the state? Should former Indian cricket captain, the late Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, his wife Sharmila Tagore and their children Saif, Saba and Soha be considered ‘enemies’? It may sound bizarre, but if a new Bill tabled by the NDA government becomes an Act, these are just some of the issues it will throw up at a time when the country is engaged in a furious debate over nationalism, sedition and the rights accorded to minorities in secular India.

For, nearly 70 years after Partition and more than 50 years after the 1965 war with Pakistan, the government is trying to rewrite a law that seeks to tackle two sticky subjects at the same time—‘enemy’ and ‘property’. An Ordinance, promulgated on January 7, and converted into the Enemy Property (Amendment & Validation) Bill 2016, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on March 9 despite issues raised by some leaders from the Congress, BJD, TMC, TRS, AIMIM and RSP, aims to take over any property that was owned by a person who emigrated to Pakistan— even if their legal heirs are Indians. The Bill, which amends the original Enemy Property Act, 1968, with retrospective effect, will seemingly nullify a 2005 Supreme Court judgement which had specified that the takeover of such properties must not violate the rights of Indian citizens. On March 15, the Rajya Sabha asked for the Bill to be examined by a select committee.