NRC will be conducted across India, there will be no discrimination on basis of religion:
Amit Shah
The Union home minister told the Rajya Sabha that Assam would not be exempt from
the nationwide exercise.
NRC will be conducted across India, there will be no discrimination on basis of religion:
Amit Shah
Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah addressing the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. |
Twitter/BJP
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the National Register of Citizens
exercise would be carried out across India, but assured there would be no religious
discrimination in its implementation, PTI reported.
“No one irrespective of their religion should be worried [about the NRC],” Shah told the
Rajya Sabha. “It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC.” The home minister
said the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would be introduced for Hindu, Buddhist, Jain,
Christian, Sikh, and Parsi refugees from countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan,
and Pakistan. Opposition parties have criticised it for deliberately omitting Muslims.
ADVERTISEMENT
The minister said there was no NRC provision excluding people from a specific religion.
“People from all religions who are Indian citizens will be included [in the NRC],” he said.
“There is no question of any discrimination on the basis of religion. NRC is a different
process and the Citizenship Amendment Bill is different.”
The exercise to update the citizens’ database was conducted in Assam according to the
Supreme Court’s orders, Shah pointed out, adding that those excluded from the final list
have the liberty to approach foreigners’ tribunals. The home minister said Assam would
not be exempt from the proposed nationwide NRC exercise.
The previous Lok Sabha had passed the Citizenship Bill but it was not tabled in the
Rajya Sabha. As a result, it lapsed after the term of the Lower House ended in May. The
government did not introduce it in the Budget Session. Protests erupted across the North
East on Monday after the Narendra Modi government said it would introduce the
legislation during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
Reject Assam NRC: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Meanwhile, Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma urged the Centre to reject the state’s
final NRC list published on August 31 that excluded 19 lakh people, or around 6% of the
population. Sarma said he welcomed Shah’s remarks about a nationwide NRC, saying
the exercise might be held again in the state.
ADVERTISEMENT
The minister also asked for a uniform cut-off date for the national NRC. “The state
government cannot accept this NRC,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “People
who should not have been included in the list have made it, while those who should have
been excluded [were in it].”
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said if a nationwide NRC exercise is not carried out,
suspected undocumented immigrants in Assam at present can move to another part of
India. Sarma also criticised former NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela. The state
government was “bearing the brunt because of one individual”, he told reporters.
The Supreme Court had transferred Hajela to Madhya Pradesh in October. He was the
top court’s mandated NRC coordinator, and spearheaded the exercise since September
2013. But he came under fire from both the BJP and the Congress since the final list’s
publication.
In September, senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi had written to then Chief Justice of
India Ranjan Gogoi, accusing Hajela of not efficiently
discharging his duty. The letter was sent days after two cases were filed against Hajela
for allegedly excluding bonafide Indians deliberately from the updated citizens’ list.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘No division on the basis of religion’
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reiterated that she would not
allow NRC to be conducted in the state. “There are few people, who are trying to create
disturbance in the state in the name of implementation of the NRC,” she said at a public
rally in Murshidabad district’s Sagardighi town. “No one can take away your citizenship
and turn you into a refugee. There can be no division on the basis of religion.”
The chief minister sought explanation from the Centre about rumours of NRC in West
Bengal that have claimed at least 11 lives in the state till now. She why 14 lakh Hindus
and Bengalis had been excluded from the final list in Assam.
Nationwide NRC: Here's a List of Documents You May Have to Furnish if Assam is the
Model
Unlike the Census, the NRC update exercise in Assam was carried out by giving an
individual the option to be included.
Nationwide NRC: Here's a List of Documents You May Have to Furnish if Assam is the
Model
Home minister Amit Shah during the winter session of parliament. Photo: PTI
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
GOVERNMENTRIGHTS
10 HOURS AGO
New Delhi: On November 21, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, home minister and Bharatiya
Janata Party president Amit Shah made official his party’s declaration about bringing in
an all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Newspaper readers woke up on November 22 to headlines that read:
NRC will be conducted Across India, repeated in Assam: Shah;
Assam rejects NRC, Shah says will do it afresh across nation;
NRC across India, RS told;
NRC will be pan-India: Amit Shah.
Till now, NRC, for the rest of India, was an ‘Assam-related issue’. One could engage
with it, or escape it altogether. But no more.
This, then, should nudge readers across the country to the obvious – and more practical
– question: What are the documents they need to pass the citizenship test that the
government is to soon launch?
Unlike the Census, the NRC update exercise in Assam was carried out by giving an
individual the option to be included. One had to apply to be in it. It is not clear whether the
same option would be granted to people in the nationwide exercise. It is also not clear
yet whether different documents will be needed for residents of different states, or a
common set of guidelines will be formulated.
Also read | BJP’s Statements After NRC Publication Reflect an ‘Anti-Muslim Bias’: US
Commission
Will one be counted only in the state where her family has roots? What options would
those with parents from two different states have? A string of questions abound at the
moment.
The application process in Assam – facilitated through hundreds of NRC Seva Kendras
(NSKs) across the state – was hinged on documents that would reflect the exclusive
citizenship cut-off date for the state as per the Assam Accord, the reason for the entire
exercise under the Supreme Court’s watch. An applicant had the choice of picking any
one of the documents listed under two heads. The 14 documents mentioned in List A
were:
1951 NRC
Electoral roll(s) up to 24 March (midnight), 1971
Land and tenancy records
Citizenship certificate
Permanent residential certificate
Refugee registration certificate
Any government issued license/certificate
Government service/ employment certificate
Bank or post office accounts
Birth certificate
State educational board or university educational certificate
Court records/processes
Passport
Any LIC policy
Since the citizenship cut-off date in Assam is midnight of March 24, 1971, all these
documents could not be from a date later than that. This meant an Assam resident who
didn’t have any 1971 documents that mention her name can show any one of the
documents named in this list if it mentions her father or grandfather.
But such applicants then had to establish their link with their father/grandfather by
furnishing one more document to be picked from List B, which included eight options:
Birth certificate
Land document
Board/university certificate
Bank/LIC/post office records
Circle officer/gaon panchayat secretary certificate in case of married women
Electoral roll
Ration card
Any other legally acceptable document
Also read | Detained in Assam and Now Dead, Dulal Chandra’s Fate Shows the
Madness of Official Policy
In the case of women married to other places, and have no documents that they could
pick from list B to establish their family link, two documents were to be allowed to them.
They were:
Circle officer or gaon panchayat secretary certificate which can be furnished as a
supporting document by a woman migrating after marriage. It need not be on or before
the 1971 date.
A ration card issued on or before the 1971 date.
Though in Assam’s context, the NRC was updated as per its exclusive citizenship cut-off
date as mentioned in Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in the pan-India context, to
keep documents ready to win back one’s citizenship, it would well be useful to have a
close read of the various amendments brought to the Act starting from 1987 onwards.
However, it goes without saying that like in Assam, across India too, the test will be
hardest for four categories of people – the poor, the unlettered, women and, to a large
extent, those affected by Partition.
NRC to GST – How Modi & Amit Shah create Anxiety Raj and still win elections
Modi’s popularity ratings keep rising despite economic slowdown and undemocratic
lockdowns. This is how he does it.
RAMA LAKSHMI 21 November, 2019 2:57 pm IST
File photo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah | Praveen Jain | ThePrint
File photo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah | Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Text Size: A- A+
It’s as official as it can get, because Home Minister Amit Shah has said so in Parliament.
The National Register of Citizens – a citizenship crucible – will be repeated in Assam,
and be conducted across India now. The exercise will unleash, once again, a new set of
anxieties among all Indians, just like it did in Assam. Another trial by fire, even for those
singed already.
But the political question to ask is this: How do Amit Shah and Narendra Modi keep
Indians perpetually anxious and ensure that the voters still keep voting for them in
elections? Keep citizens busy, and make sure the report card reflects on them and not
the BJP government.
Anxiety-inducing solutions
It all began with demonetisation, then GST, ED raids, NRC, fear of Pakistan, Article 370,
the talk of a new multi-purpose digital ID card, phone tapping, WhatsApp surveillance,
and the Ayodhya verdict. Many of these have been called bold and decisive solutions,
but all of them have stirred disquiet, at least among a large section of Indians. But BJP
duo Modi and Shah have continued to top popularity ratings year after year and win
many states and the Lok Sabha elections.
The GST was part of a big bang reform that India has been working toward for years.
But even after more than two years, the spiral of compliance paperwork that it has
locked small businesses in is massive. The long, painful days after demonetisation, the
queues and paperwork triggered by the NRC in Assam remind you of the famous 1951
painting called ‘House of Stairs’ by Dutch artist M.C. Escher – people busy climbing a
claustrophobic maze of stairs, constantly going somewhere, arriving nowhere. That’s
India now.
A print of Escher’s ‘House of Stairs’ | Commons
All this activity and anxiety that the Modi government creates for the population in the
middle of an economic slowdown, unemployment, downgrading of India’s ratings by
international agencies is a bit counter-intuitive. This is the time when politicians should
be calming the population, making them confident, not insecure. And this is also the time
when the citizens should be questioning the government on delivery, not complying to
prove their citizenship, honesty and patriotism.
But PM Modi did assure thousands of overseas Indians in the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event that
in India “sab achha hai”. All is well.
There are three ways how this conundrum has worked for Modi and how he gains
people’s confidence. I learnt this first when I was reporting on demonetisation, and again
during the Lok Sabha election this year.
Also read: Article 370, Ayodhya: Modi & Shah are done with political tasks. Now, it is
economy’s turn
Decoupling Modi from delivery
In people’s minds, Modi, and now Amit Shah, are above the mundane matrix of delivery
of jobs, economic growth and well-being. They have decoupled one of the most
fundamental expectations that voters have from their leaders – tangible outcomes. I
witnessed this first during demonetisation in 2016. So many villagers said – yes, we
suffered, but Modi is great.
The same happened during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The economic
slowdown and loss of jobs weren’t a factor at all, even though many articulated it. My
colleague Kritika Sharma travelled to Kota, Rajasthan to interview scores of IIT aspirants
during the campaign. Almost all of them complained about fears of not finding jobs in a
slumpish market, but they also absolved Modi of the responsibility of creating jobs.
“I feel the government cannot do much to change this situation. It totally depends upon
the individual efforts of a student to be able to get a job,” said one youth.
This decoupling is deeply confounding for observers of politics. It means voters look at
Modi not as a politician but as a visionary leader, an elder statesman who is beyond
performance expectations. He is not a project manager who needs to deliver.
Also read: Modi-Shah’s hyper-nationalism is making India insecure when it is actually
most secure
Ask not what the country can do for you
In the Modi era, it is the citizens who must deliver and prove themselves worthy. It is they
who must change India. He keeps people busy. By doing that, he creates a sense of
purpose and activity among citizens. No wonder then that after the NRC final list was out
in August, some residents in one posh south Delhi RWA took on the task of identifying
‘true Indians’ themselves. They went to neighbouring slums asking people to show
Aadhaar cards, and posted these videos in their RWA WhatsApp groups – followed by
other residents saying that there needs to be an NRC in their neighbourhood. I was
shown these exchanges. This is how Modi-Shah’s narratives keep the nation busy,
including out-of-work vigilantes.
The number of things Modi government has made the citizens busy – complying with
GST and citizenship paperwork, proving they are not hoarding dirty cash, not criticising
the government on WhatsApp and downloading Telegram and Signal instead, saying
they stand with the Indian Army on social media DPs even when they tie citizens to jeeps
and drive them around, saying they stand with dilution of Article 370 even when an entire
population is cut off and politicians detained overnight.
These tests of good-citizenry stand in contrast after a decade of the silent and almost
absent-from-public-view Manmohan Singh era, when citizens did not know what he did
or thought, and he didn’t push them to do anything new either.
The famous John Kennedy mantra of ‘ask not what the country can do for you’ can now
be applied to Modi-Shah – ask not what the government can do for you, but what you
can do for the government.
Also read: Why and how ideology is central to winning elections in India
Schadenfreude politics
The other reason, schadenfreude, is the simplest one. If you are suffering, you should
derive comfort from the idea that someone else is being punished. Those who stood in
the demonetisation lines felt chuffed that rich people were suffering too (though many
rich people got away using their contacts in banks).
If you are suffering while putting together your paperwork to prove you are a citizen, you
should be happy that those ‘evil’ Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants will suffer more.
Waiting for the Revolution
Three decades ago, Steve Coll, my first American boss at The Washington Post asked
me, “Where is the Revolution?” He asked me this every time he encountered
government injustice, cruelty, incompetence and corruption in India.
Today, I have the answer. People are not questioning because they think by voting for
Narendra Modi, they have ushered in the revolution already. Modi is the revolution.
And in many ways, he is. Just not your traditional textbook revolution.
Parliament proceedings
Home Minister says there will be no bias, and survey will be repeated in Assam.
The process to make a National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be carried out across India, Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on November 20 and whenever it is done, the exercise will be repeated in Assam, he added.
ALSO READ
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offers prayers at Madan Mohan Mandir, in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, Monday, Nov. 18, 2019.
Will not allow NRC in Bengal, there will be no division on the basis of religion: Mamata
He was replying to a question by Congress MP from Karnataka Syed Nasir Hussain. “The Home Minister while speaking in Kolkata recently had said that all those names which didn’t figure in the NRC, belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian community need not worry. My question is whether under NRC citizenship can be granted to certain communities and exclude the Muslims,” Mr. Hussain said.
Mr. Shah said, “I think the member is confused between NRC and Citizenship Amendment Bill. NRC has no provision to exclude any person of any religion. All Indian citizens will be included irrespective of their religion.”
As a supplementary, nominated MP Swapan Dasgupta asked whether the government will make a distinction between illegal migrants and non-citizens? “NRC was undertaken as per the Supreme Court directive. The process will be carried out across the country. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried. NRC doesn’t discriminate against any Indian citizen on the basis of religion. It is just a process to get everyone on the NRC and whenever it is done it is only obvious that it will repeated in Assam too,” Mr. Shah added.
ALSO READ
Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. File
Assam govt has urged Centre to reject current NRC: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Trinamool Congress MP Sukendu Sekhar Ray pointed out that 11 lakh Hindu Bengalis were excluded from NRC in Assam and will they be granted citizenship without waiting for the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Mr. Shah said the government accepts that refugees — Hindu, Buddhists, Jain, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis — who left Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious atrocities should get Indian citizenship. And which is why the government will bring a Citizenship Bill, he added.
Congress MP Ripun Bora said 19.6 lakh persons have been dropped from the NRC. It’s been four months since the list was published but the process of appeal has not yet started. The Home Minister said that in Assam, people whose name has not figured in the draft list, have the right to go to the Tribunal. “Tribunals will be constituted across Assam. If any person doesn’t have the money to approach tribunals, then the Assam government will bear the cost to hire a lawyer,” he said.
Amit Shah
The Union home minister told the Rajya Sabha that Assam would not be exempt from
the nationwide exercise.
NRC will be conducted across India, there will be no discrimination on basis of religion:
Amit Shah
Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah addressing the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. |
Twitter/BJP
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the National Register of Citizens
exercise would be carried out across India, but assured there would be no religious
discrimination in its implementation, PTI reported.
“No one irrespective of their religion should be worried [about the NRC],” Shah told the
Rajya Sabha. “It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC.” The home minister
said the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would be introduced for Hindu, Buddhist, Jain,
Christian, Sikh, and Parsi refugees from countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan,
and Pakistan. Opposition parties have criticised it for deliberately omitting Muslims.
ADVERTISEMENT
The minister said there was no NRC provision excluding people from a specific religion.
“People from all religions who are Indian citizens will be included [in the NRC],” he said.
“There is no question of any discrimination on the basis of religion. NRC is a different
process and the Citizenship Amendment Bill is different.”
The exercise to update the citizens’ database was conducted in Assam according to the
Supreme Court’s orders, Shah pointed out, adding that those excluded from the final list
have the liberty to approach foreigners’ tribunals. The home minister said Assam would
not be exempt from the proposed nationwide NRC exercise.
The previous Lok Sabha had passed the Citizenship Bill but it was not tabled in the
Rajya Sabha. As a result, it lapsed after the term of the Lower House ended in May. The
government did not introduce it in the Budget Session. Protests erupted across the North
East on Monday after the Narendra Modi government said it would introduce the
legislation during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
Reject Assam NRC: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Meanwhile, Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma urged the Centre to reject the state’s
final NRC list published on August 31 that excluded 19 lakh people, or around 6% of the
population. Sarma said he welcomed Shah’s remarks about a nationwide NRC, saying
the exercise might be held again in the state.
ADVERTISEMENT
The minister also asked for a uniform cut-off date for the national NRC. “The state
government cannot accept this NRC,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “People
who should not have been included in the list have made it, while those who should have
been excluded [were in it].”
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said if a nationwide NRC exercise is not carried out,
suspected undocumented immigrants in Assam at present can move to another part of
India. Sarma also criticised former NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela. The state
government was “bearing the brunt because of one individual”, he told reporters.
The Supreme Court had transferred Hajela to Madhya Pradesh in October. He was the
top court’s mandated NRC coordinator, and spearheaded the exercise since September
2013. But he came under fire from both the BJP and the Congress since the final list’s
publication.
In September, senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi had written to then Chief Justice of
India Ranjan Gogoi, accusing Hajela of not efficiently
discharging his duty. The letter was sent days after two cases were filed against Hajela
for allegedly excluding bonafide Indians deliberately from the updated citizens’ list.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘No division on the basis of religion’
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reiterated that she would not
allow NRC to be conducted in the state. “There are few people, who are trying to create
disturbance in the state in the name of implementation of the NRC,” she said at a public
rally in Murshidabad district’s Sagardighi town. “No one can take away your citizenship
and turn you into a refugee. There can be no division on the basis of religion.”
The chief minister sought explanation from the Centre about rumours of NRC in West
Bengal that have claimed at least 11 lives in the state till now. She why 14 lakh Hindus
and Bengalis had been excluded from the final list in Assam.
Nationwide NRC: Here's a List of Documents You May Have to Furnish if Assam is the
Model
Unlike the Census, the NRC update exercise in Assam was carried out by giving an
individual the option to be included.
Nationwide NRC: Here's a List of Documents You May Have to Furnish if Assam is the
Model
Home minister Amit Shah during the winter session of parliament. Photo: PTI
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
GOVERNMENTRIGHTS
10 HOURS AGO
New Delhi: On November 21, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, home minister and Bharatiya
Janata Party president Amit Shah made official his party’s declaration about bringing in
an all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Newspaper readers woke up on November 22 to headlines that read:
NRC will be conducted Across India, repeated in Assam: Shah;
Assam rejects NRC, Shah says will do it afresh across nation;
NRC across India, RS told;
NRC will be pan-India: Amit Shah.
Till now, NRC, for the rest of India, was an ‘Assam-related issue’. One could engage
with it, or escape it altogether. But no more.
This, then, should nudge readers across the country to the obvious – and more practical
– question: What are the documents they need to pass the citizenship test that the
government is to soon launch?
Unlike the Census, the NRC update exercise in Assam was carried out by giving an
individual the option to be included. One had to apply to be in it. It is not clear whether the
same option would be granted to people in the nationwide exercise. It is also not clear
yet whether different documents will be needed for residents of different states, or a
common set of guidelines will be formulated.
Also read | BJP’s Statements After NRC Publication Reflect an ‘Anti-Muslim Bias’: US
Commission
Will one be counted only in the state where her family has roots? What options would
those with parents from two different states have? A string of questions abound at the
moment.
The application process in Assam – facilitated through hundreds of NRC Seva Kendras
(NSKs) across the state – was hinged on documents that would reflect the exclusive
citizenship cut-off date for the state as per the Assam Accord, the reason for the entire
exercise under the Supreme Court’s watch. An applicant had the choice of picking any
one of the documents listed under two heads. The 14 documents mentioned in List A
were:
1951 NRC
Electoral roll(s) up to 24 March (midnight), 1971
Land and tenancy records
Citizenship certificate
Permanent residential certificate
Refugee registration certificate
Any government issued license/certificate
Government service/ employment certificate
Bank or post office accounts
Birth certificate
State educational board or university educational certificate
Court records/processes
Passport
Any LIC policy
Since the citizenship cut-off date in Assam is midnight of March 24, 1971, all these
documents could not be from a date later than that. This meant an Assam resident who
didn’t have any 1971 documents that mention her name can show any one of the
documents named in this list if it mentions her father or grandfather.
But such applicants then had to establish their link with their father/grandfather by
furnishing one more document to be picked from List B, which included eight options:
Birth certificate
Land document
Board/university certificate
Bank/LIC/post office records
Circle officer/gaon panchayat secretary certificate in case of married women
Electoral roll
Ration card
Any other legally acceptable document
Also read | Detained in Assam and Now Dead, Dulal Chandra’s Fate Shows the
Madness of Official Policy
In the case of women married to other places, and have no documents that they could
pick from list B to establish their family link, two documents were to be allowed to them.
They were:
Circle officer or gaon panchayat secretary certificate which can be furnished as a
supporting document by a woman migrating after marriage. It need not be on or before
the 1971 date.
A ration card issued on or before the 1971 date.
Though in Assam’s context, the NRC was updated as per its exclusive citizenship cut-off
date as mentioned in Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in the pan-India context, to
keep documents ready to win back one’s citizenship, it would well be useful to have a
close read of the various amendments brought to the Act starting from 1987 onwards.
However, it goes without saying that like in Assam, across India too, the test will be
hardest for four categories of people – the poor, the unlettered, women and, to a large
extent, those affected by Partition.
NRC to GST – How Modi & Amit Shah create Anxiety Raj and still win elections
Modi’s popularity ratings keep rising despite economic slowdown and undemocratic
lockdowns. This is how he does it.
RAMA LAKSHMI 21 November, 2019 2:57 pm IST
File photo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah | Praveen Jain | ThePrint
File photo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah | Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Text Size: A- A+
It’s as official as it can get, because Home Minister Amit Shah has said so in Parliament.
The National Register of Citizens – a citizenship crucible – will be repeated in Assam,
and be conducted across India now. The exercise will unleash, once again, a new set of
anxieties among all Indians, just like it did in Assam. Another trial by fire, even for those
singed already.
But the political question to ask is this: How do Amit Shah and Narendra Modi keep
Indians perpetually anxious and ensure that the voters still keep voting for them in
elections? Keep citizens busy, and make sure the report card reflects on them and not
the BJP government.
Anxiety-inducing solutions
It all began with demonetisation, then GST, ED raids, NRC, fear of Pakistan, Article 370,
the talk of a new multi-purpose digital ID card, phone tapping, WhatsApp surveillance,
and the Ayodhya verdict. Many of these have been called bold and decisive solutions,
but all of them have stirred disquiet, at least among a large section of Indians. But BJP
duo Modi and Shah have continued to top popularity ratings year after year and win
many states and the Lok Sabha elections.
The GST was part of a big bang reform that India has been working toward for years.
But even after more than two years, the spiral of compliance paperwork that it has
locked small businesses in is massive. The long, painful days after demonetisation, the
queues and paperwork triggered by the NRC in Assam remind you of the famous 1951
painting called ‘House of Stairs’ by Dutch artist M.C. Escher – people busy climbing a
claustrophobic maze of stairs, constantly going somewhere, arriving nowhere. That’s
India now.
A print of Escher’s ‘House of Stairs’ | Commons
All this activity and anxiety that the Modi government creates for the population in the
middle of an economic slowdown, unemployment, downgrading of India’s ratings by
international agencies is a bit counter-intuitive. This is the time when politicians should
be calming the population, making them confident, not insecure. And this is also the time
when the citizens should be questioning the government on delivery, not complying to
prove their citizenship, honesty and patriotism.
But PM Modi did assure thousands of overseas Indians in the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event that
in India “sab achha hai”. All is well.
There are three ways how this conundrum has worked for Modi and how he gains
people’s confidence. I learnt this first when I was reporting on demonetisation, and again
during the Lok Sabha election this year.
Also read: Article 370, Ayodhya: Modi & Shah are done with political tasks. Now, it is
economy’s turn
Decoupling Modi from delivery
In people’s minds, Modi, and now Amit Shah, are above the mundane matrix of delivery
of jobs, economic growth and well-being. They have decoupled one of the most
fundamental expectations that voters have from their leaders – tangible outcomes. I
witnessed this first during demonetisation in 2016. So many villagers said – yes, we
suffered, but Modi is great.
The same happened during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The economic
slowdown and loss of jobs weren’t a factor at all, even though many articulated it. My
colleague Kritika Sharma travelled to Kota, Rajasthan to interview scores of IIT aspirants
during the campaign. Almost all of them complained about fears of not finding jobs in a
slumpish market, but they also absolved Modi of the responsibility of creating jobs.
“I feel the government cannot do much to change this situation. It totally depends upon
the individual efforts of a student to be able to get a job,” said one youth.
This decoupling is deeply confounding for observers of politics. It means voters look at
Modi not as a politician but as a visionary leader, an elder statesman who is beyond
performance expectations. He is not a project manager who needs to deliver.
Also read: Modi-Shah’s hyper-nationalism is making India insecure when it is actually
most secure
Ask not what the country can do for you
In the Modi era, it is the citizens who must deliver and prove themselves worthy. It is they
who must change India. He keeps people busy. By doing that, he creates a sense of
purpose and activity among citizens. No wonder then that after the NRC final list was out
in August, some residents in one posh south Delhi RWA took on the task of identifying
‘true Indians’ themselves. They went to neighbouring slums asking people to show
Aadhaar cards, and posted these videos in their RWA WhatsApp groups – followed by
other residents saying that there needs to be an NRC in their neighbourhood. I was
shown these exchanges. This is how Modi-Shah’s narratives keep the nation busy,
including out-of-work vigilantes.
The number of things Modi government has made the citizens busy – complying with
GST and citizenship paperwork, proving they are not hoarding dirty cash, not criticising
the government on WhatsApp and downloading Telegram and Signal instead, saying
they stand with the Indian Army on social media DPs even when they tie citizens to jeeps
and drive them around, saying they stand with dilution of Article 370 even when an entire
population is cut off and politicians detained overnight.
These tests of good-citizenry stand in contrast after a decade of the silent and almost
absent-from-public-view Manmohan Singh era, when citizens did not know what he did
or thought, and he didn’t push them to do anything new either.
The famous John Kennedy mantra of ‘ask not what the country can do for you’ can now
be applied to Modi-Shah – ask not what the government can do for you, but what you
can do for the government.
Also read: Why and how ideology is central to winning elections in India
Schadenfreude politics
The other reason, schadenfreude, is the simplest one. If you are suffering, you should
derive comfort from the idea that someone else is being punished. Those who stood in
the demonetisation lines felt chuffed that rich people were suffering too (though many
rich people got away using their contacts in banks).
If you are suffering while putting together your paperwork to prove you are a citizen, you
should be happy that those ‘evil’ Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants will suffer more.
Waiting for the Revolution
Three decades ago, Steve Coll, my first American boss at The Washington Post asked
me, “Where is the Revolution?” He asked me this every time he encountered
government injustice, cruelty, incompetence and corruption in India.
Today, I have the answer. People are not questioning because they think by voting for
Narendra Modi, they have ushered in the revolution already. Modi is the revolution.
And in many ways, he is. Just not your traditional textbook revolution.
Parliament proceedings
Home Minister says there will be no bias, and survey will be repeated in Assam.
The process to make a National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be carried out across India, Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on November 20 and whenever it is done, the exercise will be repeated in Assam, he added.
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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offers prayers at Madan Mohan Mandir, in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, Monday, Nov. 18, 2019.
Will not allow NRC in Bengal, there will be no division on the basis of religion: Mamata
He was replying to a question by Congress MP from Karnataka Syed Nasir Hussain. “The Home Minister while speaking in Kolkata recently had said that all those names which didn’t figure in the NRC, belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian community need not worry. My question is whether under NRC citizenship can be granted to certain communities and exclude the Muslims,” Mr. Hussain said.
Mr. Shah said, “I think the member is confused between NRC and Citizenship Amendment Bill. NRC has no provision to exclude any person of any religion. All Indian citizens will be included irrespective of their religion.”
As a supplementary, nominated MP Swapan Dasgupta asked whether the government will make a distinction between illegal migrants and non-citizens? “NRC was undertaken as per the Supreme Court directive. The process will be carried out across the country. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried. NRC doesn’t discriminate against any Indian citizen on the basis of religion. It is just a process to get everyone on the NRC and whenever it is done it is only obvious that it will repeated in Assam too,” Mr. Shah added.
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Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. File
Assam govt has urged Centre to reject current NRC: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Trinamool Congress MP Sukendu Sekhar Ray pointed out that 11 lakh Hindu Bengalis were excluded from NRC in Assam and will they be granted citizenship without waiting for the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Mr. Shah said the government accepts that refugees — Hindu, Buddhists, Jain, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis — who left Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious atrocities should get Indian citizenship. And which is why the government will bring a Citizenship Bill, he added.
Congress MP Ripun Bora said 19.6 lakh persons have been dropped from the NRC. It’s been four months since the list was published but the process of appeal has not yet started. The Home Minister said that in Assam, people whose name has not figured in the draft list, have the right to go to the Tribunal. “Tribunals will be constituted across Assam. If any person doesn’t have the money to approach tribunals, then the Assam government will bear the cost to hire a lawyer,” he said.
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