Reema Shaukat
SINCE the 12 December 2019 when the India Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in India and Indian government had no idea how it will take the storm against them. Though it was just a bill passed according to Indian government but they had no clue how the public will react against them and protests will be spread throughout India. The Citizenship Amendment Act protests, also known as the CAA and NRC protests, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and National Register of Citizens protests, or the CAB and NRC protests, are a series of ongoing protests in India against Citizen Amendment Act which was ratified into law on 12 December 2019, and against the proposals to endorse nationwide National Registration of Citizen or NRC. This alteration in law will actually benefit Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsi refugees from three Muslim majority countries bordering India which are Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who took refuge in India before 2015.
This modification actually leaves Muslim community from any country, Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, Rohingyas from Myanmar and Buddhist refugees from Tibet. The protests in India began when the several communities were left out and many cities of India including Delhi, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and many other faced widespread protests as the concerns were varying. Protestors see this new law is against Muslims and believe Modi certainly is planning on bigger scale to damage Muslim population throughout India. In the coming times, Muslim population will be scrapped out from the map of India via this so-called NRC and CAA amendments and will be declared stateless. Students and public are protesting against Modi’s authoritarian policies which are not only violating basic human rights but very much particular minorities are targeted throughout India. Police responds to public in form of crack downs and mass protests in India against the CAA have been hogging the headlines globally for weeks now.
Responding to this decision by Indian government and witnessing widespread public protests and prevailing law and order situation in India, many Indian nationalists are giving mixed bag opinions not so openly but fear that such policies of Modi will bring international isolation to India.Shiv Shankar Menon former National Security Adviser said that in the wake of CAA, India’s international relations have been frayed. “What has happened is that we are increasingly isolated in the world. There has been no meaningful international support for our measures. This isolation is really increasing and the list of critical voices is quite long”.Former Indian diplomat Deb Mukharji, was also of the opinion that law has set India on a dangerous path. Nitin Desai, another former diplomat and economist, emphasized on fact that this law was “a departure from the sense of inclusiveness, which was foundational principle of our Constitution”. While drawing parallels between Modi and Hitler of Germany, he said, “We are providing amnesty to refugees by religion. There will be de facto amnesty for anybody but Muslims. In effect, what we are moving towards is what was there in Hitler’s Germany, where there was a distinction between people who were of Germanic origin and those who were not”.
However, Modi criticized Congress party and its allies who are opposing the CAA, saying they are against giving relief to those who have been brutalized and victimised in Pakistan. Modi while totally ignoring what is happening inside India threw the venom against Pakistan by stating that Pakistan was founded on religious grounds due to which atrocities on minorities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians have increased. Minorities are not safe in Pakistan so he has introduced such bill to save minorities in India. He said India cannot leave the Hindus, Christians and Sikhs apparently fleeing Pakistan to “their fate” and added it was the country’s cultural and national responsibility to protect them.Modi pointed out that the efforts are especially to protect the Dalits and tribes in Pakistan. While concealing facts on Jammu & Kashmir atrocities, Modi said that Article 370 was a step towards ending terrorism and uncertainty in Jammu & Kashmir. While not being able to handle internal crises originating in India and Modi denying his own policies for India said, “Those who are protesting against Parliament of India, I want to tell them that the need was to expose Pakistan’s deeds on the world stage. If you want to protest, protest and raise voice against Pakistan’s deeds for the last 70 years, you should have that guts.
One wonders that the assertions of world’s largest democracy and secular state are spurned aside, when the people living in the so-called secular state come up with total rejection of such claims through their actions. Incidents of forced conversions to Hinduism with a name of program as Ghar Wapsi, inhumane treatment with Dalits, ban on cow slaughter, killing many Muslims in the name of religion and false allegations of eating beef shows sectarian hatred in India in forms of violence and brutality. Past reports by organizations like Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)openly say that abandoning religious minorities in India is a continuous marvel by using violence and disavowal of constitutional rights as the main tricks by Hindu extremists. In India, hate crimes against religious minorities, their social boycotts and forced conversions have escalated dramatically since 2014. So, Modi being unable to tackle protests in India peacefully is adopting ways to blame Pakistan where many communities are living and it is part of our constitution that though Pakistan is an Islamic state, yet it gives all basic human rights and freedom to minorities in Pakistan. It gives all rights and privileges to different sects living in country though propaganda by enemies is always on to malign and defame country.
— The writer works for Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, a think-tank based in Islamabad.
