A V E
Issue 14, 2018
Established: 1995
Saturday, June 9th, 2018
Being Indian -Mr. Thajeb Ali Hazarika, Department of Political Science At a recent meeting of NEDA (North East quick to point out that the Bill seeks to legalize Democratic Alliance), its party President Mr.Atul Bora persecuted Hindus under the garb of providing voiced his party’s vociferous opposition against the protection. The essential bedrock of Indian democracy imposition of the proposed Citizenship Amendment with its firm belief in equality and secularism stands Bill 2016 in the presence of BJP Supremo, Mr.Amit violently shaken if favoured treatment is given to certain Shah.With political groups and parties taking vulnerable groups from the point of religion while diametrically opposite positions, it becomes imperative excluding others like pariahs. to examine what is cooking in the political cauldron in The basic structure of the Indian Constitution is on the the name of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016. The verge of being altered. The purported Amendment Bill attempts to bring two major changes to the Bill seeks to do exactly the unthinkable.The idea seemed Citizenship Act, 1955. It seeks to exclude Hindus, to be borrowed from Israel as the last refuge for the Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists of Pakistan, Jews to Hindustan being the last refuge for the Hindus Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India without while turning a blind eye to the associated regional valid travel documents or are living with expired travel aspirations, cultural diversity and the horrendous documents from the status of illegal migrants as defined ramifications of such a demographic addition. Assam in Section 2 (b) of the Act. The second is the reduction and Meghalaya have voiced their open opposition to of time period provided for acquiring Indian citizenship, the bill and it will be a matter of time before the entire The Bill has been facing stiff opposition in Assam and region is up in flames grappling with this volatile issue. the reasons need to be understood in detail. The classification of the stated groups needed to have The first reason is the ingrained long standing struggle an intelligible differentia and the classification should of the Assamese people against illegal immigration from have a rational nexus with the object of legislation which the then East Pakistan and present Bangladesh. Illegal is missing. immigration has played havoc with the demography of To save the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO’s) from the State culminating in the Assam Agitation and the persecution from neighbouring countries, the bill lists signing of the Assam Accord. The proposed bill if only six categories which is a very narrow classification. passed will render the Assam Accord futile as it It also leaves the question whether the ground of only provides a cutoff date for the above mentioned groups religious persecution is enough to grant citizenship. as 31 December, 2014.The regionalists in Assam are What about persecution on ethnic, religious and other furious as they feel that this is the second wave of grounds? The Bill remains resolutely silent over these demographic invasion, an outright treachery which issues. The Bill will not be accepted meekly and is likely would obliterate the existence of the Assamese in to be challenged in the judiciary leading to rising social Assam and a gross betrayal of the core provisions of tensions in the days to come. Enlightened political the Assam Accord naturalization for the above leadership holds the key in a democracy where the right mentioned communities from eleven to six years. to disagree remain as the core feature. What is cooking Rightist parties in coalition at the Centre with a soft in the political cauldron is surely becoming too hot to heart for the persecuted Hindu minorities, critics are handle.
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Weekly Newsletter of The Assam Valley Express