Citizenship Amendment Bill : Sangh Parivar's dangerous plot
The whole of North-East, especially Assam, have erupted in a huge spontaneous protest after the passing of the highly controversial and communal Citizenship Amendment Bill in the lower house of the parliament. Since 2016, when the bill was first introduced in the parliament, there had been simmering discontentment in Assam against the bill. The passing of bill in Lok Sabha in 8th January, 2019 has triggered an explosion which converted that simmering discontentment into a huge conflagration.
The protests against the bill are sweeping the whole of Assam. Every day some form of protests are breaking out in different parts of Assam - effigies of BJP chief minister of Assam and of other ministers who are vociferous in favour of the bill are being burned; rallies and protest meetings are being organized. AGP has broken its ties with BJP and come out of the government. Even some BJP MLAs have opposed the bill and their number is increasing. The students of colleges and universities have spontaneously started class boycotts. Eminent litterateurs, singers and intellectuals are expressing their dissensions in strongest terms. The 855 families of martyrs of the previous Assam movement have decided and started to return the mementos given to them in protest against the bill. The anger is such that the Bhogali Bihu festival, a national festival of Axomiya people, has been converted to demonstrate the anger against the bill. The tempers are running so high that recently the protesters have thrashed the Tinsukia district president of BJP, who had gone to participate in a meeting to campaign for the Citizenship Amendment bill, 2016. In brief, it seems that Assam is gradually returning to the days of Assam movement of '78-'85, when the Axomiya nationality and the indigenous people of Assam woke up in a huge, spontaneous outburst against the problem of 'illegal infiltration of foreigners'.
However, this time not only Assam, but the whole of North-East is being shaken up. Huge protests of people of this region are being organized in different North-Eastern States. The mood of the masses can be gauged from the huge participation of people in these rallies. The anger is palpable. In one of the protest meetings held in Mizoram, several young protesters can be seen to be holding banners with message: "Bye, Bye India, Hello China". The students and youth quite naturally are in front of these protests." In fact, North East Students Organisation (NESO) which is comprised of All Assam Students' Union (AASU), Khasi Students' Union, Garo Students' Union, All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), Naga Students' Federation, All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU), Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) and Twipra Students' Federation (TSF) from Tripura had organized a 11 hour bandh against the proposal of the bill on 8th January, the very day on which it was passed. The anger on the ground below has forced the otherwise corrupt, self-serving leaders of North Eastern regional parties to protest against the bill. In a recent meeting on the bill, 10 North-Eastern parties, including almost all the regional allies of BJP, have decided to oppose the bill jointly. Even local BJP units are vociferous in their opposition. The ruling BJP government of Manipur has already taken a resolution to urge the Centre to exempt the state from the controversial legislation. The National Peoples' Party (NPP) led Democratic Alliance cabinet of Meghalaya, which has two BJP ministers, has passed a resolution opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The BJP MLAs of the state, who are also ministers in the ruling coalition, have submitted memorandum to Prime Minister requesting him to reconsider implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The state unit president of Mizoram BJP has also opposed the bill.
What is the content of the bill? Why it has generated so much anger among the indigenous people of the North-East? We had discussed in a previous article, that the main purpose of the bill is to change the definition of citizenship of India on the basis of religion to allow non-Muslim, mainly Hindu immigrants, to get the citizenship of this country. The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 so that "..minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakista ... shall not be treated as illegal migrants...". The bill also relaxes the requirement of 11 year residence to six years for such persons. By this amendment the BJP government is trying to change the definition of citizenship on the basis of religion, which is a step forward in their plan of establishing Hindu Rashtra in this country.
Some intellectuals of RSS camp is trying to justify by saying that this has been done for humanitarian reasons. 'Where the religiously persecuted minorities of these countries will go if India does not give them shelter', they are asking. But, what about the atheist and even Muslim bloggers who are persecuted by the clergy of Bangladesh? What about the Rohingya Muslims who are persecuted by the Buddhist ruling class? Their cause is also humanitarian and they are also victims of religious persecution. And why target only the Muslim majority countries? The Tamil Hindus are also being persecuted by the Sinhalese Buddhists. Why they have been left out from the list?
Not only that, why only the victims of religious persecution will be given citizenship. If we talk about humanitarian reasons, why not give shelter and citizenship to victims of political and economic oppression and exploitation. Their cause is also humanitarian, isn't it? No, sir, humanitarian considerations are not the reason behind your bill. Moreover, we should not be naïve to expect humanitarian considerations from Sangh Parivar, the perpetrators of many riots and genocides like Guajarat genocide, and also of cow lynchings. It is certainly not among their strong points.
Another RSS ideologue has supplied another very convoluted and potentially dangerous logic. He has said, "The bill, in effect, institutionalises the 'right of return' principle for religious minorities who were left on the 'wrong' side after Partition."( Swapan Dasgupta, India has an obligation to those left on the 'wrong' side after Partition, January 13, 2019, Times of India).
This logic is patently wrong. Because, the people who stayed back in these countries, despite unprecedented communal riots during partition, did that not due to any compulsion but because they did not want to leave their motherland. There are sizeable sections of Bangalis of Hindu origin who consider present Bangladesh as their motherland and also fought for the well-being of their country. They participated in the Bengali language movement of 1952, Bangladesh liberation movement of 1971 and other movements. Some Bangali Hindu intellectuals of present day Bangladesh has noted that the bill in India will make their condition vulnerable. So, this logic of 'wrong side' is not only wrong, but also has the potential of making life miserable for these people instead of helping them. There is another side of the logic. The same logic will imply that the Muslims whose forefathers had willingly decided to remain in India and who consider India as their Motherland are also on the 'wrong side' and should be sent to the 'right side'. You are caught on the wrong foot, isn't it, Mr. Dasgupta?
More importantly those who say that creation of Pakistan as an Islamic state de facto made India a Hindu state, try to ignore and obliterate the democratic basis of India, however weak that may be. Those who do not understand anything about democracy confuse it with majoritarianism. The Charter of French revolution of 1789, which is still considered as a great example of democracy called for Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. Democracy means a state based on equality of rights of all citizens by removing feudal oppressions and exploitation completely which obstructs it. One of the main aspect is to separate religion from state and education. India may not be completely secular as it did not separate religion from state and education, but it was not formed as a theocratic state either. The Sangh Parivar is trying to do that and this bill is a step towards that Hindu Rashtra.
So, the representatives of the revolutionary proletariat must oppose the bill but not to maintain the old order which is not actually secular. They must fight for the creation of truly democratic and secular republic of India and that only can be achieved by completing the democratic revolution which can only be carried out by the proletariat of India in alliance with peasants and rural poor and other toiling people of India.
However, the reasons for protest against the bill in Assam and the North-East are different. The Axomiya people and other indigenous people of Assam and North-East feel that this bill will legitimize the immigration of Bangali Hindus in their homeland. The immigration of Bangali people of both religions from East Bengal in undivided India and later from East Pakistan and now Bangladesh is going on for a long time. As educated Bangali middle class, being members of a developed nationality, they could long oppress other indigenous people of North-East, particularly Assam. They mainly occupied the important posts in administration and other professional services and dominated the Axomiya people for a long time. A section of Bangali traders dominated trades and also appropriated lands from the indigenous people. Till as late as 1960, the official language of Assam was Bangla, not Axomiya. In Tripura, the original inhabitants, the tribals, became minority due to the occupation of Bangalis. The indigenous people of North-East apprehend that due to the immigration of Bangalis they will become minority and will be deprived of political and other national rights, like right of education and official work in their mother tongue. They do not segregate Bangalis as Bangali Hindus and Bangali Muslims.
The Axomiya people and other indigenous people are alleging for a long time that the immigration of Bangali people from outside is continuing unabated and they (the indigenous people of the North East, including the Axomiya) are in danger of becoming minority in their homeland. From 1978 to 1985 there had been a huge movement in Assam against the problem of illegal immigration, which ended through the Assam accord in August, 1985. In the said accord between the Govt of India and AASU, it was then decided that all the people who entered Assam on and after 25th March, 1971, (the day on which Bangladesh war was declared) will be detected and deported to their country of origin. However, this clause of the accord was never implemented.
During last few years, a process has been started to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to form a list of actual citizens according to the said clause of Assam accord. This process is nearing completion and it is reported that almost 40 lakh residents of Assam could not find their names in the NRC, majority of whom are Bangali people, both of Hindu and Muslim communities. Considering the living conditions of poor people and the problem of frequent flooding and riverbank erosion, the possibility is quite high that a large section of poor people, whose forefathers have come in Assam long before that cut-off date, may have difficulty to submit the required papers to prove their citizenship. So, it is very likely that there may be a good number of such persons who have not found their names in the NRC. However, it maybe that there is a possibility of presence of a section of Bangali people from Bangladesh, who have come and settled in Assam on and after 25th March, 1971. What will happen to them? Is it humanitarian to uproot people who have been born and brought up in this country and stayed over forty years and send them to a place where they will not find any place to live in? Will the deportation of these people solve the problems of Axomiya people? Are the poor people of other nationalities enemies of Axomiya people? Or, is it not that the big bourgeoisie big landlord ruling class is the real enemy of the poor people of both Axomiya and Bangali nationality? We know this process of NRC is not a solution to the complicated problem of immigration of Bangali people in Assam and North-East. The communal maneuver of BJP through the Citizenship bill is going to further complicate the situation. The real solution lies with formation of a peoples' democratic republic of India which will not only uproot the present exploitative system, thereby opening the path of free development of poor and toiling people of India, but also all the nationalities will live with complete freedom and right of self-determination.
Why BJP and Sangh Parivar are trying to bring this amendment of the present Citizenship Act? Firstly, it is commensurate with their idea of Hindu Rashtra. Furthermore, it will help them to raise the bogey of Bangladeshi infiltration without provoking displeasure among the Hindu population who has crossed the borders in recent years. In Assam, they have another consideration. In Assam, BJP's main base was among the Bangali Hindu people. By enacting the amendment of citizenship act, BJP is trying to shield this section from the purview of NRC. However, the wrath of Axomiya people is against the Bangali nationality in general. They do not segregate Bangali Hindu and Bangali Muslims in this regard and they do oppose the entry of Bangali Hindu no less. The Axomiya people correctly feel from their side that this amendment will make the process of NRC ineffective and this is the reason for this spontaneous outburst against the bill. The rest of North East also feels that this amendment will legitimize the immigration of Bangali Hindus in their land and not only will they be dominated by them, but also they are in the risk of becoming minority due to continuous immigration.
To weaken the movement of people of Assam against the said bill, the NDA government has planned to divide the people of Assam. They have devised a two-prong strategy to meet their aim. Firstly, they have taken a decision to implement clause 6 of Assam Accord, which says, "Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people." The government has created a committee to suggest the methods to implement this clause. However, from the very beginning the committee has become a non-starter. Many members nominated by the government refused to participate from the very beginning. Some of the rest, including the chairman of the committee have resigned afterwards. With tempers running high at the grassroots their plan is not likely to succeed at least for the present. The second strategy of the government is to divide the population in different tribes or communities. At the same time when the citizenship amendment bill was passed, the central government has resolved to give ST status to 6 more communities namely Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Chutia, Tea Tribes, Moran and Matak. They want to separate these communities from the movement. This has created dissensions among the tribal people, who feel that their quota of reservations will be affected by the entry of new members in the ST list. There has been sharp exchange of statements and counterstatements among them. It may get further bitter with the passage of time.
By introducing this communally motivated bill and such moves, the Sangh Parivar has started a huge fire in this region. Not only the communal divisons are widening, but national divisons are getting sharpened. The divisions among people according to old plain and hill Tribes and new entrants of the ST list, among Bangali and Axomiya are widening and leading to violent conflicts. The possibility of the old Bangali people who have domiciled long before 1971 getting affected in the conflict may not be ruled out. Probably for this reason, the Bangali people of Assam, except Barak valley is also opposing the bill. However, the Bangali Hindu people of Barak valley is vociferous in supporting the bill. But in turn this is likely to escalate the division further. To Indian proletariat, it is of grave concern that these multiple divisions shall have deep impact on the unity of working class and toiling poor, thereby further receding the possibility of development of class struggle in the region. In these divisions, the possibility of development of class struggle is receding further. Rather, the possibility of poor people of different nationalities of this region fighting violently with each other is a distinct possibility of future which cannot be ignored. Then a devastating fire will engulf the region. However, the Sangh Parivar and BJP do not care about that. They will play fiddle like Emperor Nero in the burning India.
2nd February, 2019.
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