(a) The Citizenship Act, 1955,
(b) the Nehru-Liaqat agreement & it's status,
(c) Assam Accord & inception of Assam NRC (National Register of Citizens),
(d) then CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and the official clarifications
is being irresponsible. If people still want to protest about CAA after reading the above they should definitely go ahead as our democracy
provides them the right to do so.
3) However, an overwhelmingly large part of the protest quickly shifted from being against passage of recently passed law (CAA) to something
that will get defined sometime in the future (nationwide NRC) and the combined effect of the two. A lot of the current supporters of CAA would
be standing shoulder to shoulder with our Muslim brothers and other protestors if NRC turned out to be discriminatory towards Muslims. What is
baffling to many is protestors continuing to protest now when NRC is not even drafted and while very well knowing that miscreants & some
hardline elements from a community have successfully hijacked the protests and turned them into violent riots.
4) Then there is also the sheer hypocrisy found all around. In #2 above I'd not even mentioned looking up past views of political parties
currently in Opposition. They demanded a law similar to CAA, they too proposed the NRC but now when they are not in power they've quickly taken
an about turn and tried to put a communal spin to vilify the govt and feed the anti-Muslim narrative. Similarly for many media
houses/journalists. Some of their grievance is bound to be legitimate but what galls many is how conveniently people in public domain have
chosen to have selective memory. Did you see the clip where Farhan Akhtar was asked why he had joined the protest/called for his supporters to
do so? He had NO CLUE about the merits/de-merits of the case! So many celebrities/politicians have shared misleading news, half truths and even
outright lies. A few have even made hate speeches amounting to threat to life against leaders from govt and even Hindus. This received roaring
cheers though thankfully from comparatively much smaller crowds. All of the people mentioned above and other vested interests with their fear
mongering propaganda have only led to creating fear & even paranoia in the minds of so many Muslims. And when people do not even condemn the
violence/rioters while shouting about police brutality, then they become a part of the problem too. Violence/riots and excessive police action
are both wrong, but western media will only show you still shots of the latter. Anyone only outraging about one and not the other is only
helping legitimize violence.
5) If your concerns are about illegal immigrants not being welcomed in India and you are looking at it from US context then STOP! I don't know
about your views on impact of illegal immigration in the US. For us there is a difference between refugees seeking asylum and illegal
immigrants. India, a developing country, is almost 1/3rd the size of USA with over
3 times the population. We have scarcity of resources and
cannot afford to support hordes of economic migrants. The latter take away from Indians on the lowest rung of the economic ladder, irrespective
of religion. You'll find most Indian Muslims agreeing to this too. For many decades govts have provided many subsidies/benefits to the citizens
which had to be claimed by showing certain documents. Voter IDs have been mandatory too to ensure free & fair elections. We have battled
security threats from the neighbourhood for a very long time too. We have a multi-party system with strong regional parties. We are in effect a
country of countries which is both a boon and a bane for us. Vote bank politics/preserving vote banks takes a whole together different dimension
in India and every political party is guilty of this. We all have our own baggages & ouexperiences shape our historical perspectives, something
that has always been exploited by sparring political parties. Our complexities should not be looked at solely from the perspective of a western
experience/mindset.
6) Our very bitter experience with how partition was designed & implemented is present in our living memory. Correcting some glaring wrongs from
the past was always demanded by many in Parliament but somehow never acted upon. The fact remains that a large part of our neighbourhood is
predominantly Muslim and the vast majority of illegal immigrants from these countries where Islam is the state religion will be Muslim.
Affirmative action for minorities from there (amounting to a few thousands) and not taking away any of the rights/constitutional provisions
provided to all others is what CAA boils down to. If you have the historical context mentioned in #2 and #4 above then you just may end up
thinking that CAA has merits.
7) Finally I'll just add that most CAA supporters wonder whether the govt's intent with the timing of introducing the bill was to divert
attention from a slowing economy or just following their manifesto promises. And many supporters of CAA also believe that the govt should've
prioritized development and economy right now. However, CAA in of itself to us has merits and we'll wait for the Supreme Court (which does not
have political appointments) to deliberate on it. We also know that there is a probability of CAA (which comes into effect now) being misused
whenever the proposed nationwide NRC (currently not even drafted) gets implemented. However, there is a difference in timing of the two which
makes all the difference.We intend to wait for the provisions and modalities of nationwide NRC to first be drafted before judging its merits.
Premature assumptions, specially in light of the violent rioters hijacking the protests, is unjustified to us. You'll find most of us protesting
vehemently against the govt's move if the proposed NRC turns out to be discriminatory. But we'll wait for the details to be drafted and not jump
the gun now.