Ever since the National Register of Citizens list was published on August 31, doublespeak has reigned supreme in the BJP camp

Ashlin Mathew

Updated: 4 Sep 2019, 7:14 PM

Engagement:582

Ever since the National Register of Citizens list was published on August 31, doublespeak has reigned supreme from the BJP camp. In fact, there are so many voices emerging from the ruling party that one doesn’t know what to believe and what not to.

As soon as the list was published, it became known that 19 lakh citizens have been excluded from the list and not all of them were Muslims, as the Union Home Minister has been alleging. In fact, Amit Shah has been claiming for more than eight months that Assam has more than 40 lakh ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’, by which he evidently meant Muslims. This was used to further BJP’s nationalist agenda.

But, ever since the list has been published, BJP seems to be scurrying to send multiple messages out to ensure that its Bengali Hindu voter base is not left seething as many of their names have not figured on the list.

Though Amit Shah has been maintaining a studied silence since the release of the list, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that those excluded in the final National Register of Citizens were “not to be detained under any circumstance” till they exhaust all options for legal recourse. It tweeted that adequate judicial process would be available for those affected to appeal to the foreigners tribunal within 120 days. Additionally, it also stated that 200 new FTs would be functional from September 1.

However, the new Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) haven’t started functioning yet.

Soon after, Assam minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma questioned the process of NRC. He went so far as to claim that the ‘legacy’ papers have been managed by a number of people and that has rendered the process ineffective. Sarma has been attempting to communalise the issue since August 31.

To understand what Sarma means by “managed”, one only has to speak to Rupam Goswami, BJP’s spokesperson in Assam. “It means a person having three legacy documents of 1951, 1966 and 1971 can trade his documents. Hajela has said this in the Supreme Court. If documents have been traded, it means foreigners have been inducted into the list,” contended Goswami.

“That is difference between Muslims and Hindis and Christians and others. Muslims can have different titles. The children do not have the same title as the father. In someone’s father’s name is Hamid Ahmed, his son’s name may be Hamid Ali.

“Once you get the legacy data of a person, then all he to do is that he has to prove that he is the son of a person. Then he can go get a birth certificate. The main problem is to get a legacy document, all the other documents, you can manipulate,” added Goswami.

Since, the final NRC does not have the required number of Muslims excluded from the list Sarma has threatened that the process of re-verification will continue as a way to continue to harass the Muslims. This will at least be seen by BJP’s nationalist vote bank as though they are committed to driving out the illegal Bangladeshi Muslim refugees. This is because BJP’s oldest vote bank in Assam is the Bengali Hindu community.

Assam chief minister Sarbanda Sonowal has relatively maintained silence on the issue. The only thing he had said was that his government would provide legal aid through the district legal services authority to the poor who have excluded from the list. This statement was also mostly for the benefit of Bengali Hindus as all through the NRC process, the government had made it complicated for even genuine Indian citizens to be included.

“Despite, the government’s announcement, there has been no movement in that regard. They have to first appoint lawyers and we have to see the quality of the lawyers being appointed. Just by appointing lawyers, the government cannot wash their hands off,” explained SB Rahman, a lawyer who has been helping several people appeal their cases in foreign tribunals.

“Effective legal aid has to be provided and if they appoint young lawyers who do not understand the process, it will only complicate the matters for the poor and illiterate people who have been excluded,” he added.

Goswami also questioned the Supreme Court’s monitoring process. “You are saying the Supreme Court has been monitoring the process. But, what does monitoring mean? If the Supreme Court had made a committee for every district, then I think monitoring would happen. In this case, Supreme Court has directed the process. I don’t think they have entered the system and monitored the process of the system. There was no district monitoring committee made,” underscored Goswami.

Both Sarma and Goswami have made it clear that the government of Assam intends to appeal in the Supreme Court against this National Register of Citizens.

What is extremely clear is that BJP wants the issue alive until the next elections as most parties whether Congress or Asom Gana Parishad or BJP came riding to power on the issue of infiltrators. If this dead horse is not shown to be alive, most parties may not even have a political issue to rake up. Development, after all, has become passé.

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Published: 4 Sep 2019, 5:53 PM