CAA,NRC and related aspects by Seema Azad

It is important to understand how a patriotic Indian is being transformed into a "problem"!

The year of 2019 will be remembered for two laws brought for insulting the citizens of India. These laws are the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed 'National Register of Citizenship' (NRC) for the entire country after the pilot test in Assam.

Of course, some people are happy with the coming of these derogatory laws because they are 'Hindus', not humans. The basis of this happiness is inhuman and anti-democratic. This is why some scenes keep flaring themselves in the mind these days. These are scenes from Nazi Germany's 'Concentration Camps' or torture homes seen in the movies, where Jews were tortured simply because they were Jews and the rulers of Germany were Aryans.

These days, the diaries of Ann Frank, a Jewish teenager from Nazi Germany, frequently surround the mind, who had to hide with their family in the basement of the house because they were Jews, not of Hitler's race. The family was later captured and killed like a million Jews in a gas chamber. While watching these films and reading the diary, it seemed that how power can be so inhumane at such a time, while ideology like 'democracy' has not only come but has also become prevalent in different countries.

At the moment after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, it seems that 'Yes it is still possible' and our own country is growing rapidly in this direction. Detention camps, i.e, torture homes in Assam, Bengal, have not only been prepared but are also keeping people who have been declared as 'non-citizens' under NRC. After its implementation in the whole country, such torture houses will start appearing all over the country. Those who are supporting this law as being anti-Muslim, they probably do not know that these torture houses will not only contain Muslims but tribals, poor laborers who are not able to prove their citizenship through 'legal papers', Landless farmers, transgender communities, women living under the umbrella of men. In fact, the whole country is going to be divided into two parts based on declared 'religious' and unclaimed 'property'.

Of course, the CAA is saying that those who will be 'non-Muslims' will not have as much difficulty in certifying citizenship, but it is not so easy with the many screws in it. In this test, people who have been declared as 'non-citizens' will be in 'Detention Camps' inside 'Nation' and 'Citizens' will be in 'Nation'. On the one hand, the ideology of 'democracy' has reached a place where the talk of abolition of prisons has started, on the other hand, the project of forcibly making some jails for these communities within these same democratic countries by declaring them 'unprogressive' Is moving forward. Who are these people who are being called 'non-citizens' and why? Who are those people who are calling people 'non-citizens' and why? In response to this question, the formula for confronting these oppressive fascist laws is hidden. Therefore it is necessary to think and talk about it.

What is 'citizenship'?

'Citizenship' is the 'right to inherit' within a country. It is clear from this that the concept of 'citizenship' came with the origin of 'state'. There was no such thing as citizenship in a stateless society. The relation of both 'state' and 'citizenship' is linked to the right to use the wealth of the earth. When the 'public wealth' of the earth was stored as 'private property' and it was occupied by tribes through the tribes, this 'state' also felt the need to ensure its 'citizens'.

The agreement of the state with the people living within its prescribed limits is 'citizenship' i.e. the right to get the rights to the person living within that particular state. In this way, in fact, as the boundary of the states divides the people, in the same way, 'citizenship' also divides the human being from the human being, even if he is a resident of the same earth, it prohibits many rights, including his movement. The people of Bengal-Bangladesh and Hindustani-Pakistani Punjab speak the same language, cuisine even though they are citizens of different countries i.e. 'citizens' for one place and 'non-citizens' for other places. The task of distributing them in this form is done by the royalty occupying a particular territory. This partition has been done by the 'Tantra', that is, the state, who rules 'Lok', not by 'Lok'. Like all other divisions, this division of 'citizenship' has done a lot of harm to the 'civil' masses oppressed by the state system, it has served to benefit the ruling classes by increasing the quarrels of the exploited classes. We are seeing it inside India, it can be seen in all countries of the world including the USA, the UK. 'Citizenship' gave rise to another problem, called 'refugee problem'. Refugees i.e. those who take refuge in the border of another country outside their 'country' border. Since they are not 'citizens' of the asylum-seeking country, the problem is compounded before them.

As "citizenship" 'issue' and "refugee" 'problem'

Within countries, 'citizenship' becomes an 'issue' and 'refugees' become a 'problem' only when the resources/opportunities to live the lives of people living in a state/country are reduced due to the policies of the country's government. Such a situation comes because the occupation of large business houses through the state on resources starts increasing and the state starts breaking its agreement with the citizens to retain their possession. It does this through various laws, schemes, declarations, etc. In such a situation, the citizens who cannot get employment in their country, go to other country in search of it, after reaching there, they first become 'refugees' and then 'problem'. When governments refuse to give them asylum, they are considered 'intruders'. In both cases, citizenship becomes an 'issue' in the country where they come. The citizens here feel that the 'non-citizens' are sharing their limited resources and opportunities.

This migration does not always take place between two countries, but also between states. People from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh go to places like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kashmir, Delhi Punjab, Assam, etc. for employment because these places have relatively more employment opportunities. If people migrating to states or countries get opportunities to live and eat in their own place of residence, hardly any of them would like to leave their country and go to a foreign country. They have to flee due to the feudal/capitalist pro-economic policies of their country's governments. Many times governments in the event of movement arising out of their economic policies, distribute the citizens of the country on a religious, ethnic and racial basis.

In this situation also, minority communities facing repressive discrimination from these countries migrate to other countries. The government of our country is doing this work itself, but it is ridiculous that in three countries it has brought CAA by citing 'minority oppression'. It is not his generosity but his communal fascist idea. The Rohingya, an oppressed minority of Myanmar and have come to India for asylum, are not giving asylum to India because their religion is Muslim. In fact, governments, based on their political ideology, declare a refugee as a 'guest', someone an 'intruder', just as Tibetan refugees are India's 'guests' and Rohingya refugees are 'intruders'. The CAA is a manifestation of this communal politics of India.

It is worth underlining that through a fascist move like NRC, a communal party like BJP made a place among the people of Assam, Tripura, and North-East and got more seats than before in the elections. But the communal fascist move like CAA is also losing its base there. That is, the spirit he instigated himself, BJP has been killed by him. Because of Assam, Tripura does not like any 'anachronism', whereas the BJP is disliked by Muslims only.

Citizenship-non-citizenship has many other dimensions. One is that in many areas this infiltration of non-citizens is done with the support of the state, or it is, that is, governments allow them to keep quiet. For 'Assam', 'infiltrators' for Tripura mean not only laborers from Bangladesh, but also those people from West Bengal who occupy government / non-government high posts, locals are subordinate to them. The feeling of the local people was also behind making Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Telangana separate states. Recently, BJP's government was trying to make this 'infiltration' by removing Article 370 in Kashmir, so that the demographics can be made to suit their politics and power. Buying a plot in Kashmir was not a joke. This is also the intention of the government.

One dimension of this is that to maintain their profits in the recession of profits, the imperialist corporate houses export their work to poor countries through their governments so that their cost can be reduced due to low wage rates here. These companies choose 'non-citizens' for themselves without intruding. Whereas countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka provide their 'citizens' as cheap laborers serving the imperialist countries in that. This is called 'outsourcing'. It is not 'work', but 'outsourcing of citizenship' as cheap labor because by doing this, governments break the contract to provide employment to the citizens of their country.

It is also worth noting that these imperialist companies are also 'intruders' whom the government itself is calling. With the outsourcing of work, companies of imperialist countries are constantly 'infiltrating' the search for cheap laborers in India. Despite the opposition of the citizens, the governments are not only calling them with respect but are making laws in their favor to loot the resources here. You would know that any corporation or company is a 'person' in law and the government is giving this outsider more authority than the citizens of our country. If companies from all over the world can go from one country to another in search of natural resources in the form of cheap laborers and raw materials, then what is wrong in finding 'cheap laborers' going from one country to another? But when a group of poor people go from one country to another as cheap laborers, they are deprived of their rights by being labeled as 'non-citizens'. At the same time, this group is used to incite the feeling of 'outsiders' for power. By pointing fingers at them, governments divert attention from the fact that their governments themselves have suppressed their right to be citizens, not any external or internal community. By pointing fingers towards these 'other' communities, governments act to incite the feeling of fascist nationalism among their citizens. As the governments of our country are doing today.

Keeping these things in mind, if we look at the NRC implemented in Assam and proposed for India in India, it is a fascist attack on citizens in the name of citizenship by the Indian government in the era of the imperial economic recession. It is currently implemented only in Assam as a trailer. Probably to be applied to the entire country from April 2020.

This register states that people across the country must certify that they are Indian citizens. For this, the documents that citizens have to show, it will not be possible for most people to show them. This register also considers the 'Aadhaar' forcibly made by giving the slogan 'Ek Bharat Ek Identity' as invalid for citizenship. For citizenship, you have to prove through the paternity of the land that you are a citizen, as has been said earlier. It does not have a large population at all. Adivasis, who are natural residents of forests and forests, will not be able to show any paper. Since the Manuvadi system of this country deprived the Dalits of the land, it would be difficult for them to prove it. Women too, because they were not allowed to own land like Dalits, so their citizenship can be attested only by becoming someone's daughter or wife, not independently. If the citizenship of their male relatives is rejected, then their citizenship will be automatically rejected.

The transgender community, most of whom have lost their relationship with their home, will be difficult to prove. Apart from this, on a very large scale, citizenship of those whose documents or several letters or numbers have been messed up is invalid. In Assam, many such people have been declared non-citizens and have been put in detention camps. Even the commander-in-chief Mohammad Sanaullah Khan, who has been awarded the Presidential Award for fighting Kargil war from India, has been declared a foreigner and has been put in a detention camp. What could be more embarrassing for the patriotic citizens of India? It is for these reasons that the number of 'intruders' in the NRC has not come as much as 'infiltration'.

At the same time when the NRC was being implemented in Assam, the country saw what a humiliating act it was for the citizens of the country. The government to which the citizens have been sent, they will have to prove that they are citizens of this country by putting them in lines before the same government. During this proceeding in Assam, a picture of a 100-year-old man was shown heavily on social media. Someone wrote under this derogatory picture - 'Since this man is older than India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, these three countries must present a certificate of citizenship for this man'.

Actually, this is an insult so that people talking about democracy can realize that power is above citizens. Those who are happy to be Hindus after coming to CAA, their self-respect is either killed by the circumstances of the country, or 'Hindutva' is not letting them realize the insult that the country we love, What does the government of that country have to provide proof of its citizenship.

Actually, by bringing CAA, the government has also divided this insult into two insults - small insults, big insults. Humiliation of Hindus is small in front of Muslims and they are happy about it. To maintain this feeling even in detention camps, the government may create two types of detention camps - separate for Muslims and separate for non-Muslims. It may be, it may not be. But we are steadily moving towards the Nazi Concentration Camps. This is extremely dangerous. But the way the government has opposed this move, it is also a ray of hope. Fascism would collapse, fascism would collapse.

                                                                                     - Seema Azad is the editor of Dastak magazine.