Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has justified the passing of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, citing the evacuations of Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban capturing Kabul.
But the developments in Afghanistan resulting in the exodus of a large number of people from the war-torn country has demonstrated that the law passed by the Indian Parliament on December 11, 2019, and given assent by the President of India on December 12, 2019, was not only in contravention of the Constitution but also lacked logic. Dozens of petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the law, arguing that it was against the basic principles of the Constitution which are religion-neutral. Petitions are still pending.
The CAA passed by the Modi government fast-tracked the citizenship to the people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The law, however, excluded Muslims. The six non-Muslim communities were included in the law granting Indian citizenship on the assumption that minorities in Muslim majority Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh faced religious persecution.
If some Afghan Sikhs and Hindus have fled Afghanistan due to fear of the Taliban’s persecution, thousands of Afghan Muslims have also fled their country fearing persecution from the new would-be rulers and some of them have chosen India for refuge and shelter. This has posed a question: if Afghan Muslims are exiting their country owing to the same fear that is behind the Sikh and Hindu citizens of Afghanistan, what will the Government of India do in such a situation? Will it grant refuge and shelter as also citizenship to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs only, and leave out Afghan Muslims? Will it grant citizenship to Afghan Muslims also if they apply for it? If India refuses to accord citizenship to persecuted Afghan Muslims, does this not indicate that India’s international relations are now being shaped based on religion and India has no humanitarian concerns?
Today, Afghanistan is facing the biggest humanitarian crisis. Almost every country – the US and all European countries – are taking in Afghan refugees, irrespective of their faith, and announced to look after them. Many of these countries are also evacuating the Afghan nationals willing to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul. If we don’t accept the persecuted Afghan Muslims simply based on their religion and reject their request for citizenship, what kind of message will we be sending to the world community? The statement of some top-level government functionaries that India will evacuate Afghan Sikhs and Hindus willing to leave Afghanistan. This is fair. But the silence of the government on persecuted Afghan Muslims points towards the government’s lack of a clear Afghan policy. If we go strictly by the CAA-2019, then we can’t accommodate Afghan Muslims because the 2019 law, based on narrow logic, does not consider the Muslims in the neighbouring countries can be persecuted by their respective governments and societies. We need to introspect ourselves to formulate a religion-neutral religion-neutral religion-neutral progressive policy that gives us a space to deal with the international community. While domestic political compulsions based on religion and dictated by the electoral prerequisite of some parties may be useful in winning elections, an extension of the same policy in international relations and diplomacy will reduce us to an outcast.
The CAA-2019 also faced massive protests pan-India not only from Indian Muslims but other communities as well, particularly in Assam and other north-eastern states. Muslims agitated as the Modi government was contemplating to conduct a nationwide exercise for preparing a National Register of Citizens (NRC), on the pattern of that in Assam. Anyone not able to provide documents to prove his Indian citizenship would find his name missing from the NRC and such a person would be declared a foreigner. As poor and illiterate people and those living in rural areas may not collect relevant papers for the NRC, all such people would be declared foreigners in their own country. While Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis will get protection under the CAA-2019 and given citizenship, Muslims would be declared foreigners and would be the only losers. And hence, the Muslims protested, and many groups also moved the Supreme Court to challenge the law, granting citizenship based on religion.
Several Assam and North-East India groups protested against the law because it gave citizenship to illegal non-Muslim migrants, which the locals felt would disturb the local demography. Locals in many states felt that the population of illegal migrants from Bangladesh was huge, and the natives would be reduced to a minority if the CAA-2019 is implemented.
