Signals emanating from the Union government that it may revive the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) are certain to stir the hornet’s nest in the North-East. The bill itself is a challenge to the Constitution’s secular ethos discriminating against the citizenship claims of Muslim immigrants while opening the doors for other religious communities. After the recent fiasco over the Assam National Register of Citizens, Centre should move carefully and only after consultation with state governments and stakeholders who have problems with the CAB.
With fears of being culturally and demographically overwhelmed, the CAB faces opposition in many north-east states. Home minister Amit Shah has stressed that CAB will not undermine the inner-line permits that are necessary to enter some of these states. He also underscored the “permanent” nature of Article 371 which showers special protections on these states while promising that the fate of Article 370 won’t befall it. With a large number of Bengali Hindus being excluded from NRC, the CAB will help BJP firefight the growing outrage against NRC.
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But the exclusion of only Muslim immigrants from CAB undermines the very rationale for the legislation that refugees must be treated in a humanitarian concern. It is civil war, economic distress, religious persecution, and ethnic and social strife that led many refugees from neighbouring countries to India. Seeing this movement of humanity from a purely religious spectrum may suit political goals but is a body blow to Indian traditions that loudly proclaim “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. With Bangladesh doing better than India on the economic front, government data itself proclaims that Bangladeshi immigration is only a political bogey. The north-east needs development and connectivity, not CAB or NRC.
