By TCN News:
Assam is in a social political crisis today because of two issues – the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, first tabled in Parliament on July 15, 2016.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeks to change the classification of „illegal migrants‟. The Bill will amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to provide citizenship to „illegal migrants‟ from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, who are of Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, Jain, or Christian origin. Muslims, or its various sects and communities, are not included in this Bill, including those who are facing persecution in Pakistan, such as the Shias and Ahemediyas.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) operating under the supervision of the Supreme Court has released its first report on December 31, 2016, in which 1.9 crore of 3.29 crore applicants were declared as “Indian citizens‟.
And now the second report released today July 30th has declared another 2.89 crores names excluding nearly 40 lakhs Indian citizens.
These 40 lakhs citizens who have been left out due to some discrepancies are labelled as D-voters meaning doubtful voters.
Although they have been given time till September to prove their citizenship it is a tough exercise as they have to provide nearly 16 proofs in the form of various documents. And if they fail they are illegal immigrants.
This move by the NRC has been termed as inhuman by not just human rights activists but also by many political parties from the opposition.
Condemning this draft list of Assam NRC, President of All India Muslim Majlis -e- Mushawarat Navaid Hamid said this is a fraudulent exercise undertaken by the NRC to make Indian citizens as refuges in their own country and polarise the country on communal lines.
Maulana Mahmood Madani, General Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind said the exclusion of nearly 40 lakh citizen is a very serious issue that will have deep impact over socio-geographic situation of the country. The central and state governments should not overlook the humanitarian aspects before taking any further steps in this matter.
Valid documents such as Passport and Aadhar Cards are also ignored as proof of citizenship which shows that this is a deliberate attempt to exclude a specific group/s of Indian citizens.
The only guiding criteria of the officers of NRC officials, said President of All India Muslim Majlis -e- Mushawarat Navaid Hamid, has been politics of bigotry and hate to exclude as much as Bengali speaking citizens (overwhelming majority with Muslim names) and a good number of citizens with roots of ancestry in Bihar AND the whole exercise is being done not only to create an environment of hate and polarize the nation on communal lines but also to create a fear psyche amongst the citizens across the nation invoking false bogey of infiltration by Bengali speaking population.
The concept of D-voter is found only in Assam and it is a gross injustice as many of the citizens are genuine and have lost their documents along with other possessions while shifting to different locations each time whenever there were floods and erosions.
Mr. Navaid Hamid has also mocked the fictitious assurance of the Joint Secretary of Union Ministry of Home Affairs that “Nobody would be sent to the Concentration Camps” if names are not in the proposed NRC list because the truth is that there are already detention camps that are part of the jail. And it is here those persons whose names have not been listed and declared as D voters are forced to stay.
Maulana Madani of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind however has assured the citizens of Assam that every possible help and cooperation will be extended to the needy persons. He has also issued instructions to every Jamiat Unit in Assam to help those excluded citizens to prepare documents and other related facts. For this purpose, Jamiat has deputed fifteen hundred persons including lawyers and intellectuals to help the needy persons at district level.
The need of the hour is that all peace loving citizens should understand the politics of exclusion and hate of the present day government and the dangers behind the politics of NRC list.