Creating four million stateless

A spectre of panic has descended on the four million residents of the Indian state of Assam. Their names have not appeared in the recently finalised National Register of Citizens (NRC). Updating of the NRC was ordered by the Supreme Court of India in response to a public interest litigation. The NRC issue has not only created uncertainty for the millions who have remained unregistered, it has elicited bitter response from leading opposition parties both at the centre and in some states. Repeated statements of concerned authorities that tribunals and the appeal procedure set in place will guarantee that not a single bonafide Indian national would be deprived of his/her citizenship have done little to allay the fear.

Initially the ruling BJP government at the centre preferred not to be seen much concerned with the exercise. NRC process was a matter of the apex court and the state of Assam; it wanted others, including concerned neighbours, to believe. On 30 July Rajnath Singh, the Union Minister for Home Affairs, assured the parliament that “Centre had no role in the preparation of the draft list.” Only a day later the BJP president Amit Shah boasted, “You did not have the courage to implement it. We have the courage.” Turning to Congress he said, “You didn’t have the courage to drive out Bangladeshi migrants.”

Soon after the publication of the final list the veneer of deceit started to peel off further. On 10 September the influential national secretary of BJP Ram Madhav firmly stated that a policy of “detect, delete and deportation” of illegal migrants was on the agenda. He underscored that it was a “considered decision” of the party. On 11 September Amit Shah at a party rally in Jaipur claimed that a list of 4 million “Bangladeshi infiltrators” has been prepared and announced, “the BJP has vowed to not spare even a single Bangladeshi infiltrator. We will expel all of them.” In shoring up support in favour of his xenophobic agenda Shah invoked concerns of national security and blamed “infiltrators” for acts of terrorism in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. He accused the opposition “for standing with illegal infiltrators”. Buoyed by the statements of the party chief BJP MLA from Telengana Raja Singh was quoted as saying “If Rohingyas and Bangladeshi illegal migrants do not leave respectfully, they will be shot and eliminated.” No action was taken against him for inciting violence.

This overt anti-Bangladeshi stance of the Indian political establishment is baffling. Time and again Indian leaders have highlighted the contribution of the present government of Bangladesh in building excellent relations between the two neighbours. No one can dispute that Bangladesh’s active engagement helped address major security concerns, develop the region and augment the centre’s authority over northeast India. Only days ago Bangladesh allowed Delhi to use Chittagong and Mongla ports to transport goods to the seven sisters of the north-east. It will not be improper to suggest that such gestures of goodwill from Bangladesh has not been met with due reciprocity. Among other issues sharing of Teesta water has remained unaddressed, unfair barriers on exports from Bangladesh persists and border killings continue unabated. One also wonders what prompted the Indian government to pursue such hostile anti-Bangladeshi propaganda at a time when elections in Bangladesh are due within months.

Citizenry in Bangladesh is disturbed at the silence of Bangladesh on this important issue. Bangladesh’s response to Indian action has thus far been muted. The explanation offered by the Indian External Affairs Ministry that the NRC issue is a state matter appears to have been taken in face value by its Bangladeshi counterpart in Shegunbagicha. People want a definitive stand against such unwarranted and unfounded claims by the big neighbour. If the foreign ministry has been assured that disenfranchised residents of Assam will not be expelled to Bangladesh then onus lies on the ministry to convey such assurance to the masses. At the moment the nation is paying dearly as for long the foreign office like Ostrich buried its eyes in sand to the ominous developments in Arakan over the last few decades. It will be imprudent to repeat the same mistake on the Assam issue.

With the unequivocal anti-Bangladeshi statements coming from the top Indian political leadership and the rapidly unfolding of events centering the NRC issue time has come for the senior leaders of the Bangladesh’s ruling party and opposition to firmly reject the latest Indian ploy. It is also time to pursue a robust bipartisan diplomatic effort against this politically motivated policy that may have dire consequences for the minority communities on either sides of the border.

There is little doubt that the NRC issue is a two pronged attack of the rightwing Hindu nationalists and the Assamese hardliners on the Bengali community, the bulk majority of those are Muslims. Muslims constitute a third of the state’s population, making it the second largest Muslim populated after the Indian administered Kashmir.

The implementation of the NRC project was marred in controversy. The fairness and credibility of the NRC implementation authority were raised as the registration procedures were tampered with addition of new rules halfway into the process creating obstacles for applicants to establish their claims. Observers have noted that the appeal process could take years if not decades, to complete. While properties of the unlisted people have become prime targets of the locally influential, following Trumpian formula in dealing with undocumented migrants, families have been split, children from parents and grandparents.

The proponents of the exercise are candid about its communal angle. The BJP government in the centre has assured that those belonging to Hindu faith whose names have not appeared in the NRC in Assam not need worry. Amit Shah clearly stated, “The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill of 2016 will ensure Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and others coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh be eligible for (Indian) citizenship.” Thus there is little doubt that Muslims have been the principal target of the NRC exercise.

It is interesting to juxtapose the Indian NRC exercise in Assam against the new Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s announcement of considering granting of citizenship status to 250,000 undocumented Bengalis and 1.4 million Afghans. At a time when the world is collectively committed to reduce conditions of statelessness the NRC experiment in Assam in all likelihood will create one of the largest cohorts of stateless people of this century. Under no logic or law Bangladesh is obliged to accept the disenfranchised residents of Assam as it is not a party to their status determination. As a responsible member of the international community India is surely aware that collective expulsion is prohibited under several instruments of international law. One hopes that reason and humanitarianism prevails over myopic political consideration in the corridors of power in New Delhi.

* CR Abrar is professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka and an expert on refugees and migration