Secularism?

I wrote this when I was 16

Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act are being held at several places all over the country urging the centre to revoke the act. We should examine why such strong protests have broken out across India and are being covered across the world. The government says there is confusion in the minds of the protestors and a lack of knowledge about its legislation and proposed actions on citizenship. But the fact is that we are seeing wider and more passionate resistance to the government in public than at any time since 2014. The question is why. In my opinion it is an incorrect assessment made by the government that the people protesting against this act are unaware of the implications of this act.

The legislation aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who arrived in India before Dec. 31, 2014, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. For these immigrant religious minorities, the law effectively amends India’s Citizenship Act, 1955, which required an applicant to have resided in India for 11 years. The upheaval against this amendment in most of the country, is giving citizenship on the basis of religion which directly contradicts the secular nature of the constitution and excludes Muslims. For example, Rohingya Muslims fleeing from persecution in Myanmar, for instance, will not be given citizenship under the new law. In the northeast, particularly Assam, protests are against the implementation of this act in their state as they believe it will increase the number of immigrants ,fearing the loss their cultural and linguistic uniqueness.

The NRC is a count of the legitimate Indian citizens. Barring the state of Assam, this exercise has never been done anywhere in the country. The Union home minister Amit Shah has said he will frame a nationwide NRC by 2024 to detect illegal migrants. On December 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government had never said anything about an NRC except in Assam.

The CAA will provide citizenship to illegal non-Muslim migrants from three countries and who have entered India before December 31, 2014. An honest NRC should exclude illegal migrants of all religions. That, however, will depend on the intent of the government and a framework that is flawless, a huge challenge for the government. There is nothing wrong per se with the exercise of detecting illegal migrants-irrespective of their religion-but to discriminate on the basis of religion is against India's secular ethos, especially when the CAA does not specify that it will cover people who have faced religious persecution. In Pakistan ,Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Shia muslims as well as Ahmedias face persecution. But according to this act these people would be excluded . Many people give examples of countries such as the USA who are also removing illegal immigrants from their border and sending them back to Mexico to justify the government’s law. What is being forgotten is that this is not done on the basis of religion, so it has nothing to do with what the Indian government is doing.

It is assumed that once the Rohingyas are identified they would be deported back to Bangladesh, but this isn’t true. The Prime Minister of India promised the Bangladeshi Prime Minister that this is India’s internal matter and it won’t affect Bangladesh in any way. So the question arises where do these muslims go? This is where the detention camps comes into play. Even though the Prime Minister has denied the existence of these camps, many journalists and news channels have confirmed these camps being built. If there is a nationwide NRC with CAA those left out could be put into these detention camps. A large amount of the nation’s resources would be spent on carrying out an NRC and maintaining detention camps. The economy of the country will also be affected in the process.The government also shut the internet in places they believed caused unrest while protests. Shutting down the internet is not only violation of human rights but also affects the economy. With internet blackouts lasting for 4,196 hours in 2019, India has lost over $1.3 billion in economic terms. This places the country on the third spot among world's most affected countries economically after Iraq and Sudan. It also spoils India’s international reputation.

A secular country should not have citizenship laws based on religion, as this can lead to a further deterioration of secular values. While the constitution allows the people the right to dissent and peaceful protest, it does not help when senior leaders of the ruling party, make hateful and provocative comments about the protestors.In a country built on the principles of secularism why are they trying to divide us on the basis of religion. We tend to blindly follow the views and politics are parents follow. It’s time to open our eyes and see what is right and wrong and decide for ourselves with whom we need to stand.