Be humane: Refugee persecution must be assessed on a case by case basis, not on that of religion
The constitutionality of the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act must be fast decided by Supreme Court in the
wake of the widespread protests that it has provoked. Centre has shown
no intention of altering CAA provisions and it falls upon SC to restore
the primacy of constitutional values. CAA as passed by Parliament has an
inherent bias against Muslims. The apex court has given the government
four more weeks to respond to the petitions against CAA. The government
will use this time to come up with a case that the changes in
citizenship law are not violative of the Constitution. Critics have so
far not found the arguments in favour of CAA convincing. The chief
justification for the controversial law is that it provides relief to
minorities of six religions living as illegal migrants in India after
fleeing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan –
where Islam is the state religion. But this has contradictions.
For instance, Buddhism is Sri Lanka’s state religion and thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils are languishing as illegal migrants in India for several years. Their exclusion in this mass citizenship drive is inexplicable.
Perhaps the Centre means to make a distinction between nations that have a state religion and those gripped by religious fundamentalism (such as Pakistan). The notion that it is only the non-Islamic minorities who face persecution in Pakistan is flawed. Arguably, religious fundamentalists target the “apostate” who is considered a deviant from the state religion – like Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan – with even greater fervour than the non-believing “infidel”. Even Baloch nationalists whose cause India espouses, Bangladeshi atheists, or Myanmar’s Rohingyas fleeing various shades of persecution may be living as illegal migrants in our midst but don’t make the cut under CAA. In Bangladesh, secular bloggers have been killed while in Afghanistan Hazra Shias have been targeted by Taliban.
Under the Citizenship Act’s naturalisation process for legally entering aliens 2,830 people from Pakistan, 912 from Afghanistan and 172 from Bangladesh, many of them Muslims, were granted citizenship in the past six years. Extending this naturalisation facility to illegal migrants fleeing persecution, irrespective of country and religion, would be both humane and in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. This will help mend the CAA-engineered gaping hole in India’s secular fabric, and repair the damage that India’s soft power has suffered because of a law which is deviation from founding fathers’ conception and sense of who we should be as a people.
For instance, Buddhism is Sri Lanka’s state religion and thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils are languishing as illegal migrants in India for several years. Their exclusion in this mass citizenship drive is inexplicable.
Perhaps the Centre means to make a distinction between nations that have a state religion and those gripped by religious fundamentalism (such as Pakistan). The notion that it is only the non-Islamic minorities who face persecution in Pakistan is flawed. Arguably, religious fundamentalists target the “apostate” who is considered a deviant from the state religion – like Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan – with even greater fervour than the non-believing “infidel”. Even Baloch nationalists whose cause India espouses, Bangladeshi atheists, or Myanmar’s Rohingyas fleeing various shades of persecution may be living as illegal migrants in our midst but don’t make the cut under CAA. In Bangladesh, secular bloggers have been killed while in Afghanistan Hazra Shias have been targeted by Taliban.
Under the Citizenship Act’s naturalisation process for legally entering aliens 2,830 people from Pakistan, 912 from Afghanistan and 172 from Bangladesh, many of them Muslims, were granted citizenship in the past six years. Extending this naturalisation facility to illegal migrants fleeing persecution, irrespective of country and religion, would be both humane and in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. This will help mend the CAA-engineered gaping hole in India’s secular fabric, and repair the damage that India’s soft power has suffered because of a law which is deviation from founding fathers’ conception and sense of who we should be as a people.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
