Amar Bhushan By

The promise of having National Register of Citizens (NRC) has sadly been ditched in the din of protests organised by educated illiterates, misguided Muslims, political opportunists and violent miscreants. PM Modi should have stood firm but he opted for cautious pragmatism, sidestepping the fact that NRC was more critical than abrogation of Article 370 in terms of India’s security implications.

Today, the government has very little idea of what 1.65 crore illegal immigrants are up to. Twenty-five percent of them have already become virtual citizens fraudulently and the rest are waiting to be similarly naturalised.It was precisely to address this lurking danger that NRC was conceived. The objective was to maintain a record of total headcount of people—original residents, authorised and illegal immigrants—who inhabit India. The data would have helped central and state governments plug leakage in their welfare schemes, make financial transactions more accountable, prevent non-citizens from influencing political process and give security agencies a clear idea of whom to watch for being terrorist, Pakistani surrogate, religious extremist, insurgent and Naxalite.

No wonder, almost all countries have documented proof of their nationals’ citizenship like citizenship certificate/card, national ID, passport card, national registration card, smart ID card, electronic ID, etc. In our case, we are issued a plethora of cards to serve different purposes but not to define that we are citizens. Our ancestors had a far better understanding of security issues.

Between 3rd and 6th century BC, Janpadas/empires from Takshashila to Kalinga compulsorily issued stamped papers/coins to separately identify their residents and visitors to safeguard their territorial integrity. But we hate to distinguish between immigrants and original inhabitants or live in a nation that is made of its nationals and, has a border. We do not care if our demography, economy and cultural security get irreparably destroyed in the process.

The absurdity of fear over NRC is appalling. It goes like this—Muslims will lose citizenship and until they are shipped out forcibly, they will be kept in detention centres, modelled on Nazi concentration camps; rich and powerful may still manage to obtain citizenship but poor, old, infirm, sick and illiterates shall not have their names in NRC, because they can neither travel, nor have memory of their birth nor means to bribe officials; it will be a nightmare standing in long queues in harsh winter and summer to access the elusive ID. Sounds like the instigators have mastered the technique of Goebbels, minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, in replacing truth with falsehood. It is a classic situation where fear has been given wings to soar high and wildly. Fortunately, 80 percent Indians are less gullible and busy in securing their livelihood.

India has a strong judicial system, irrepressible opposition parties, independent media, innumerable groups of social activists and countless individual watchdogs. It is impossible, therefore, for any genuine Indian to be denied citizenship. The agitation should actually be on how to draw right lessons from Assam NRC fiasco, reach a broad consensus on documents that individuals must submit and where to appeal, should bona fide claims are rejected. Modi must revisit his promise and not get distracted by antics of Mamatas, Vijayans and Owaisis. amarbhushan@hotmail.com