[Make no mistake, this is very much from a Modi-backer, of a saner variety though.
The shifting of the burden of proof on the individuals cannot but trigger a huge chaos as the exercise in Assam - where "citizenship", for ages, being a hot-button subject, people must have had been much more careful as regards the relevant documents as compared to the rest of India, has amply demonstrated. Of course, explicit bias and remarkable inefficiency have further aggravated. That (some of) the inner districts, less affected by the "foreigners" controversy, have much higher proportions of exclusion as compared to (some of) the border districts further reinforces such an anticipation. <<This is why the NRC’s implementation has become such a political hot potato. It was meant to weed out illegal outsiders. Yet, as many as 19.07 lakh (almost 6% of the 3.29 crore who applied) were excluded from the final NRC list. Second, the rate of exclusions in the border districts with Bangladesh such as South Salmara (7.22%), Dhubri (8.26%) and Karimganj (7.57%) was much lower than districts like Karbi Anglong (14.31%) and Tinsukia (13.25%) where Assam’s bhumiputras have lived for centuries.>> (Excerpted from the article posted below.) So, *the BJP has just no other go but to go back to the drawing board before a nationwide roll-out of this exercise, which it, evidently, considers as its a major trump card in triggering intense communal polarisation in the country, to facilitate the journey towards a "Hindu Rashtra"*. In fact, the original programme has already been dropped and, rather noiselessly, replaced with that of the NPC - a very different kettle of fish. <<(I)t is difficult to oppose the principle of a citizenship register. The huge implementation problems in Assam, however, point to serious practical pitfalls. The big lesson is that India’s weak state apparatus did not prove robust enough for a strong state solution like this. BJP’s Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari recently demanded an NRC in the capital as well. It would be prudent to learn from the Assam example and not try it elsewhere in the country. We must fix the state’s backend first before such ambitious programmes.>> (Excerpted from the article posted below.) <<The jury heard testimonies on the burdens placed on millions of impoverished and unlettered people: the burden of proof was shifted to the residents to prove that they were citizens, documents related to birth, schooling and landownership, which impoverished and unlettered rural residents anywhere would find hard to muster, were insisted upon. Even when documents were produced, they were often refused for discrepancies, in the English-language spelling of Bengali names, or in age.>> (Excerpted from 'Contested Citizenship in Assam: People’s Tribunal on Constitutional Processes and Human Cost', 7TH & 8TH September | Indian Society of International Law, Bhagwandas Road, New Delhi, Members of the Jury - Justice (Rt) Madan Lokur, Justice (Rt) Kurien Joseph, Justice (Rt) AP Shah, Ambassador Deb Mukharji, Ms. Githa Hariharan, Dr. Syeda Hameed, Prof. Monirul Hussain and Dr. Faizan Mustafa, Interim Jury Report, at < https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/pdf_upload-364231.pdf>.) The construction of new detention centres, in various states, while definitely adds to the ambience of justified panic and goes to indicate that the regime is in no mood to give up, the inherent problems calling for a brand new design very much remain in place. Even the CAB, as it had been drafted, may be of little help; a non-Muslim, in order to be eligible for exemption, will have to at least establish that one had migrated from one of the three listed countries: Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan. That'd be pretty tricky. *For any determination process to be, at least seemingly, fair, under Indian conditions, the burden of proof has got to be shifted back to the state*. And a due legal process must be followed. It's in fact good that the outcome has turned out to be so very visibly and miserably messy. It has breathed a new life into an otherwise lost fight against the monstrous NRC process.] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/academic-interest/nrcs-political-googly-assams-nrc-mess-of-unintended-consequences-changes-politics-as-usual-in-the-north-east/?fbclid=IwAR3C-IKp3oxud7pq_nza2fX8eD8dBRCuMH650X1l_9W4O6pvPJAsqbIRWdg NRC’s political googly: Assam’s NRC mess of unintended consequences changes politics as usual in the north-east September 10, 2019, 2:00 AM IST Nalin Mehta in Academic Interest | Edit Page, India | TOI Imagine if you and your family have lived in your town for decades and you possess a legitimate Indian passport, Aadhaar card or ration card. Yet, if you can’t demonstrate that your parents or grandparents or other family members had a legitimate citizenship document that was valid before March 24, 1971, you would still be declared non-Indian. Now imagine if you did have your father’s citizenship document, but the name spelling there was slightly different from how his name is written in your ID document. You would still be declared non-Indian. For those in the rest of India trying to make sense of the daily headlines from Assam, this, in a nutshell, is what the National Register of Citizens (NRC) conundrum is all about. Now imagine if you are not well-to-do. Your family migrated to Assam from, say Kanpur, 40 years ago, you didn’t keep detailed family documents and you don’t have contacts or connections. You would suddenly find yourself in the same position as someone who entered illegally from Bangladesh. Read also: Amit Shah hints at CAB revival, says it won’t affect Article 371 & indigenous rights This is why the NRC’s implementation has become such a political hot potato. It was meant to weed out illegal outsiders. Yet, as many as 19.07 lakh (almost 6% of the 3.29 crore who applied) were excluded from the final NRC list. Second, the rate of exclusions in the border districts with Bangladesh such as South Salmara (7.22%), Dhubri (8.26%) and Karimganj (7.57%) was much lower than districts like Karbi Anglong (14.31%) and Tinsukia (13.25%) where Assam’s bhumiputras have lived for centuries. Illustration: Uday Deb This is why Assam’s finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma says the NRC is a “mixed bag” and that “we are in sorrow”. It is also why both the state and central governments went to the Supreme Court earlier this year for reverification of the NRC list. That request was rejected but the state government is appealing to the court to reconsider. Read also: ‘Inclusion of people with fake identity in NRC is worrisome’ Read also: No Indian citizen should be excluded and no foreigner should be included: Assam FM The NRC is a legacy of the Assam Accord of 1985 and the Assam movement that preceded it. A key demand of that movement against ‘foreigners’ was for ‘detection, deletion and deportation’ of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. It was a demand that was specifically coded into the Assam Accord signed by the Rajiv Gandhi-led central government. The last Assam government under Tarun Gogoi tried to start a project to update the 1951 NRC list with a pilot project in 2010 in Barpeta and Kamrup. It was put on the backburner after serious pushback. Things changed only after the Supreme Court mandated an updation exercise in 2013 after a writ petition filed by Assam Public Works. The exercise began in early 2015 and the court has been constantly monitoring the exercise since then. It has reportedly cost over Rs 1,220 crore, engaged 40,000 government employees, 8,200 contractual employees and took over five years. What does it mean now? First, nobody is happy with the result. Law-abiding citizens have been seriously discomfited. The overall number of illegals identified is too low and the demographic spread of those who failed the NRC test is different from what political parties expected. No one can defend exclusions like the case of Mohammad Sanaullah, who served the Indian Army for 30 years and the Assam border police before suddenly being declared an illegal. Or the case of 79-year-old Sunirmal Bagchi who was honoured in the state government’s Independence Day roll of honour before finding his name off the NRC. Or seven-year-old Somiara who has been facing “Bangladeshi” taunts because she was excluded from the NRC even though both her parents made it onto the list. Second, though Congress could have made political capital, the state BJP has been ahead in seizing the political narrative so far. It positioned itself as an aggressive defender of locals against illegal outsiders. Now that the NRC is a mess, it is equally positioning itself as the defender of those who have been wrongly left out in the implementation. The state government made the district-wise NRC-exclusion numbers public in the state assembly on August 1, though the apex court got these earlier in a sealed cover. It is now arguing that 200 new foreigner tribunals being set up can be used to provide relief to those wrongly left out. Centrally, home minister Amit Shah at the North Eastern Council meeting was guarded but specific in his first post NRC-publication comments: “Questions are being raised about the NRC by different sections but today I just want to say this that the BJP-led government is committed to ensure that not a single illegal immigrant enters the region.” The political messaging is unambiguous. Read also: Centre not to touch Article 371, no illegal immigrant to be allowed: Shah Third, in terms of protections for its Hindu base, BJP during the elections promised the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which envisaged citizenship to persecuted minority groups from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan after six years of residence in India. It could conceivably be revived. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the Lok Sabha campaign, also promised scheduled tribe status to six communities: Tai Ahom, Matak, Moran, Chutia, Koch Rajbongshi and the tea tribes. Fourth, it is difficult to oppose the principle of a citizenship register. The huge implementation problems in Assam, however, point to serious practical pitfalls. The big lesson is that India’s weak state apparatus did not prove robust enough for a strong state solution like this. BJP’s Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari recently demanded an NRC in the capital as well. It would be prudent to learn from the Assam example and not try it elsewhere in the country. We must fix the state’s backend first before such ambitious programmes. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZgsb4n5EEENHDSPJLBdmhyZWUq51ZqVVvtf5ovNNi7D2g%40mail.gmail.com.
