Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
The total population of Assam is 3.2 crore. About a third of them are Muslims. Assam is the largest Muslim state after Kashmir. Many of them settled here during the British rule, following the sources of their immigrant ancestors. Illegal migration from neighbouring Bangladesh to this state is also a long-standing concern. After an agitation that lasted for almost six years, the central government had an agreement with the protesters in the Sixth. The agreement states that who entered Assam without papers after March 24, 1971 will be considered as foreigners. The draft National List of Controversial National Citizens (NRC) has now made more than 4 million people illegal as a result. Assam has also been in the same situation as the President Trump Administration in the United States separated their children from illegal immigrant parents. With the release of the final list of civic registrations, over 4 million people have become stateless overnight. Assam State is now ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindu party Bharatiya Janata Party BJP. His party has also announced in the past that illegal Muslim migrants will be expelled from this state and sent to Bangladesh.
Assam’s final citizen registry has been published. In this registry, 3.11 million people are shown as legitimate citizens of Assam and India and 1.9 million people are illegal citizens. The illegal 4.1 million immigrants were shown at the draft register published last July. At that time, hue and cry started in Assam and West Bengal after seeing the illegal list of huge numbers and panic spread in Bangladesh. In this context, even before the elections in Bangladesh and India, BJP President Amit Shah seemed very aggressive. He publicly stated that they were all Bangladeshi Muslims. The Supreme Court ordered the scrutiny of the draft again and ordered the final report to be published by 31st August. Accordingly, the final citizen registration was published. Now the number of illegal immigrants in the register has dropped from 4.1 million to 1.9 million. Since the Central Government and the Assam government have declared that those who are illegal will be treated as foreigners. Now over 1.9 million people have been regarded as illegal or abusive. What action will be taken against these people?
It may be mentioned that around one thousand tribunals are being formed to reconsider the appeal of this 1.9 million. The aggrieved persons can go to the High Court if they are not satisfied with the trial of the tribunal. If they are not satisfied with the High Court, they will go to the Supreme Court. If they are not satisfied with the Supreme Court justice, where will they go? That issue was not clearly stated in the Citizen Register. However, it can be assumed that those who go illegally after the Supreme Court verdict may be jailed in detention camps.
During the partition year 1947, Liberation War in 1971 and post independent period Bangladeshi people have exchanged with the Hindus on the issue of communal and political violence. For the same reason many Hindus from this country have gone to India by exchanging property. According to the Bengali rights activists living in Assam, NRC is actually being used for a special purpose. It is nothing more than a political conspiracy. They (Hindu nationalists and non-fundamentalists) are publicly threatening Muslims. So what can happen here is what happened to the Rohingyas in Myanmar. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said Assam has deported 4 million people which will push the country towards civil war, provoke militancy.
The Congress says that BJP has made this rude by turning a blind eye to the special people. And thousands of workers who were engaged in the formation of citizens’ cadres did not perform their duties properly. So what’s the matter? Citizen Calendar is about to be thrown into a waste paper box. Because in the meantime, during the visit to Bangladesh, Indian Foreign Minister Jayashankar has said that the incident of this citizen registration is completely an internal matter of India.
Various examples of the extent of fault or bias in this initiative to create a citizen list in Assam are being published in various newspapers of the country. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, the fifth President of India, was a Muslim from Assam. The family of the late Fakhruddin’s brother has been listed in the NRC as a non-citizen. The family of a retired man who has served in the Indian Army for over three decades has been identified as a civilian. There are many instances where one brother’s family is on the citizen list, but another brother’s family is excluded from the list. The father is on the citizen list but the son is dropped. The BJP’s main organisation, the Sangh Parivar, has two major political agendas. Its first agenda is to transform India into Hinduism.
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat says Hindutva will be the main identity of Indians. All the religious people here should be known as Hindus. Here Muslims will be Hindu-Muslim, Christians will be Hindu-Christian, and Buddhists will be Hindu-Buddhists. RSS believes that followers of other religions will practice their religion only after adopting a culture of Hindutva. The RSS wants to unite 80 percent of India’s lower and upper-caste Hindus on the basis of this ideology.
If, at the end, 2 million people are declared ‘foreigners’ and their appeal begins at the Foreigners’ Tribunal, then on average, at least two thousand cases will be submitted to each tribunal. If the tribunal decides every application in one day (which is almost impossible), then many applicants are obliged to stay in detention centers for 3-5 years. It is also uncertain where these persons will be found if they are released from the detention center after being finalized as non-citizen from the tribunal.
After living in other countries for a long time, what comes to us if someone goes out of purpose without a stateless or civil list? In this case, we do not have the mentality to harm ourselves by being generous or liberal. We will never allow ourselves to be tied up or threatened by our existence in the face of pressure or power. So we as, neighbours believe in cooperation and cordiality.
(Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed, writer, researcher and columnist)
The total population of Assam is 3.2 crore. About a third of them are Muslims. Assam is the largest Muslim state after Kashmir. Many of them settled here during the British rule, following the sources of their immigrant ancestors. Illegal migration from neighbouring Bangladesh to this state is also a long-standing concern. After an agitation that lasted for almost six years, the central government had an agreement with the protesters in the Sixth. The agreement states that who entered Assam without papers after March 24, 1971 will be considered as foreigners. The draft National List of Controversial National Citizens (NRC) has now made more than 4 million people illegal as a result. Assam has also been in the same situation as the President Trump Administration in the United States separated their children from illegal immigrant parents. With the release of the final list of civic registrations, over 4 million people have become stateless overnight. Assam State is now ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindu party Bharatiya Janata Party BJP. His party has also announced in the past that illegal Muslim migrants will be expelled from this state and sent to Bangladesh.
Assam’s final citizen registry has been published. In this registry, 3.11 million people are shown as legitimate citizens of Assam and India and 1.9 million people are illegal citizens. The illegal 4.1 million immigrants were shown at the draft register published last July. At that time, hue and cry started in Assam and West Bengal after seeing the illegal list of huge numbers and panic spread in Bangladesh. In this context, even before the elections in Bangladesh and India, BJP President Amit Shah seemed very aggressive. He publicly stated that they were all Bangladeshi Muslims. The Supreme Court ordered the scrutiny of the draft again and ordered the final report to be published by 31st August. Accordingly, the final citizen registration was published. Now the number of illegal immigrants in the register has dropped from 4.1 million to 1.9 million. Since the Central Government and the Assam government have declared that those who are illegal will be treated as foreigners. Now over 1.9 million people have been regarded as illegal or abusive. What action will be taken against these people?
It may be mentioned that around one thousand tribunals are being formed to reconsider the appeal of this 1.9 million. The aggrieved persons can go to the High Court if they are not satisfied with the trial of the tribunal. If they are not satisfied with the High Court, they will go to the Supreme Court. If they are not satisfied with the Supreme Court justice, where will they go? That issue was not clearly stated in the Citizen Register. However, it can be assumed that those who go illegally after the Supreme Court verdict may be jailed in detention camps.
During the partition year 1947, Liberation War in 1971 and post independent period Bangladeshi people have exchanged with the Hindus on the issue of communal and political violence. For the same reason many Hindus from this country have gone to India by exchanging property. According to the Bengali rights activists living in Assam, NRC is actually being used for a special purpose. It is nothing more than a political conspiracy. They (Hindu nationalists and non-fundamentalists) are publicly threatening Muslims. So what can happen here is what happened to the Rohingyas in Myanmar. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said Assam has deported 4 million people which will push the country towards civil war, provoke militancy.
The Congress says that BJP has made this rude by turning a blind eye to the special people. And thousands of workers who were engaged in the formation of citizens’ cadres did not perform their duties properly. So what’s the matter? Citizen Calendar is about to be thrown into a waste paper box. Because in the meantime, during the visit to Bangladesh, Indian Foreign Minister Jayashankar has said that the incident of this citizen registration is completely an internal matter of India.
Various examples of the extent of fault or bias in this initiative to create a citizen list in Assam are being published in various newspapers of the country. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, the fifth President of India, was a Muslim from Assam. The family of the late Fakhruddin’s brother has been listed in the NRC as a non-citizen. The family of a retired man who has served in the Indian Army for over three decades has been identified as a civilian. There are many instances where one brother’s family is on the citizen list, but another brother’s family is excluded from the list. The father is on the citizen list but the son is dropped. The BJP’s main organisation, the Sangh Parivar, has two major political agendas. Its first agenda is to transform India into Hinduism.
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat says Hindutva will be the main identity of Indians. All the religious people here should be known as Hindus. Here Muslims will be Hindu-Muslim, Christians will be Hindu-Christian, and Buddhists will be Hindu-Buddhists. RSS believes that followers of other religions will practice their religion only after adopting a culture of Hindutva. The RSS wants to unite 80 percent of India’s lower and upper-caste Hindus on the basis of this ideology.
If, at the end, 2 million people are declared ‘foreigners’ and their appeal begins at the Foreigners’ Tribunal, then on average, at least two thousand cases will be submitted to each tribunal. If the tribunal decides every application in one day (which is almost impossible), then many applicants are obliged to stay in detention centers for 3-5 years. It is also uncertain where these persons will be found if they are released from the detention center after being finalized as non-citizen from the tribunal.
After living in other countries for a long time, what comes to us if someone goes out of purpose without a stateless or civil list? In this case, we do not have the mentality to harm ourselves by being generous or liberal. We will never allow ourselves to be tied up or threatened by our existence in the face of pressure or power. So we as, neighbours believe in cooperation and cordiality.
(Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed, writer, researcher and columnist)
