By Muddassir Ahmad Qasmi for TwoCircles.net
Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) is the brainchild of people who think that Muslims will dominate India in the next few decades; therefore, they are leaving no stone unturned to exploit Muslims in India out of unknown fear.
They tried to deport lakhs of Muslims in the name of Bangladeshis from India through National Register of Citizens (NRC) but failed on a large scale when more non-Muslims than Muslims excluded from NRC list.
The National Register of Citizenship, which took ten years, employed 52,000 government employees and cost the Government of India a whopping Rs 1,220 crore, is now being considered as a fruitless exercise by the very same people who sought it.
From abovementioned facts, it becomes clear that targeted Muslims in Assam were not illegal citizens of India. Yes, NRC proved that a large number of non-Muslim migrants are living in India without proper documents.
Now after failure in Assam, on one hand, power drunken people are trying to exclude Muslims from India as much as possible by NRC and on the other hand, they are going to make every possible effort to include non-Muslim foreigners in Indian citizen’s list through CAB. If this is not bias against Muslims, what is?
The main point to be noted here is that if Modi-led government’s plan of NRC is implemented across India, surely, they are going to waste a huge amount of nation’s treasure once more without any gain. As it is clear from the context that the desired number of people, especially Muslims, will not be found illegal citizens, although, they will suffer a lot of problems in the process. Thus, anti-Muslim elements will not be successful in decreasing number of Muslims from India and Muslimophobia will remain intact.
It should be clear that Muslims are not against NRC or NPR (The National Population Register) if applied and undertaken properly without any kind of prejudice for the safety and security of the country.
Those who see an increase in the Indian Muslim population as dangerous should remember well that Muslims are not going to leave their motherland—India—ever. If they had desired so, they would have migrated to Pakistan at the time of partition.
Indian Muslims never felt ashamed about their decision to not leave India in 1947 because the Indian constitution conferred on them full rights to enjoy their freedom of religion. But alas! A handful of communal people have been trying to shatter the concept of the one-nation theory.
Hence, it is wise not to squander again a huge amount of nation’s money only to weaken Muslims in India. They should remember that Muslims are an integral part of India if they are weak and unsafe; ultimately country is weak and unsafe. Is it rational to underestimate more than 15% of the Indian population—Muslims?
Thus, the only way out is to go ahead together hand in hand for the prosperity of the country and democracy. Yet, if a section of people thinks that they have all right to rule India, again, for this purpose too they should try their best to win minorities’ heart and provide them with facility and security.
The author is Assistant Editor of Eastern Crescent, Mumbai.