India – A Race To The Bottom

If you are angry, do you burn your home? Arson is not justified, Period

Just imagine, your spouse is angry with you and she starts burning your home, maybe you can imagine that you are angry with your spouse, and you start burning your home. Of course, that arson is disdainful, but more than that, it is a psychopathic malady. This blog is not about how that should be treated or understanding the dynamics. A wrong remains wrong, without justification. Let us drop this British era vestige and face the truth that not just inside our home, but outside (our home) belongs to us too.

To be unbiased, let us not side with the aggrieved or those who are instigating aggression. Now let us watch the entire spectacle from a third person’s point of view. The first thought that comes to your mind is, ‘Is this person normal?’

Arsonists, at home or in public, are not acceptable at any cost. Protesting is absolutely a feature of any throbbing democracy but arson and anarchy justified? Protesters burn public property not because they are insane, but because they don’t consider that as their own property. If they do so, would they burn their homes too? Students have a lesson to learn from Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs), who took peaceful protest to influence the political landscape (See citations).

Drop the False Pretense 

CAB is based on a false notion held by many BJP loyalists that India is a great destination for Muslim migration from Pakistan. Statistics reveal that only Bangladesh is the country of origin for Muslim migration for India.

India does not appear anywhere in UN reports for migration of Pakistanis and the same holds true for Afghanistan. Barring Bangladesh, no Muslim country thinks of India as a place of destination (see UN references cited below). It is rhetoric that BJP is trying to roll out for the next election. This is quite an old strategy, ‘scare the populace and demand vote’ (read 10 stages of genocide, citation below).

It is time to visit CAA/ CAB and add a missing perspective. Immigration is as old as human evolution. Like water flowing downhill, people have been migrating towards opportunities for living. Sometimes, those are plain attacks by organized armed men and often, those are innocent in search of life and better living. CAB is an intent and a sentiment converted into law. Laws are interpreted by word and provide a foundation for precedence. Once a law is created, intent and sentiments take a backstage. CAB becomes interesting from this perspective. As I read CAB, I understand it as below –

• Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are allowed
• Specifically, any Muslim from the majority Muslim nations surrounding India are not allowed. However, can BJP spell out its strategy for accepting those Muslims from Enclave reassigned in 2016?
• There is no mention about religious persecution on Muslims such as Qadian, Nizari Muslims, Hazara diaspora, Senusi Sufi’s, Ismailis and Shia’s who are also being persecuted in Pakistan
• Muslims from The Maldives and Tibet – The Maldives is a Muslim majority nation mostly constituted from ethnic Indias from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Similarly, several Muslims from Tibet have migrated to Kashmir or other parts of India, after the Chinese genocide and occupation. They are definitely in trouble because of CAA/CAB. Lhasa-born, Lhasa Khache Muslims and those who migrated from the central Tibetan city of Zhigatse, living in Srinagar are likely to be targeted.
• INCLUDED RELIGIOUS GROUPS from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians.
• EXCLUDED RELIGIONS other than Muslims are Taoism, Baha’i, Confucianism, Judaism, Shinto, etc. It also excludes Tibetan Muslims.
• If one sincerely intends to migrate to India from any of the above countries, CAA/CAB indirectly encourages conversion (proselytization) to any of the acceptable religion.
• Other EXCLUDED are Agnostics, Atheist, Indigenous Faith, etc., if one interprets the law. If the law can be bypassed to get these groups to migrate to India, that’s another concern.
• As per the wording of CAB, excluded groups from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal are not welcome either.

The intent is Islamophobia and though CAB abhors migration of Muslims from three countries specifically, it does not mention if Muslims from other countries are welcome. It is safe to presume, that CAB is exclusively targeted towards Muslims. Nations do not rise with a phobia, Pakistan is a good example. It cultivated hatred and diverted its resources against India and we all know where Pakistan stands today, as a nation.

Nations rise with a keen sense of identity and that cannot be a phobia toward any generic group of people. Introducing such ordinances degrades a democracy into a Taliban style model.

That does not mean, I disagree with the issues with Islam, all I insist is we need to work out a creative concrete solution and sometimes, that takes decades. There is no debate on the aggressive nature of Islam and the lack of reconciliation for the crimes committed by the bigoted and aggressive practitioners. However, that is presuming 100% of followers of Islam are bad. That also includes Abdul Kalam and several of the noble soul who contributes vigorously to the development and expansion of humane cause. Thus CAB concludes, if you are a Muslim, you need to be shunned, at least from India. In the US, they call it the first amendment. First amendment enshrines safeguarding your faith. At least, for now, India has dropped the veils and abandoned First Amendment. It is no more a secular country. Yes, India is a country for Non-Muslims though. If the US drops its First Amendment, it has dropped the very foundation stone on which it rests. India has just done that.

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The Inner Line Permit (ILP)

ILP began as a practice with British rule to keep away the mainland Indian population from gaining business opportunities into the virgin field rife with Oil, Tea and Timber business. That was more a visa equivalent, to restrict the mainlanders from the pristine North East population. It remained in place since the 1830s. Gradually, all including Assamese and Tripurites got accustomed to this visa restricted entry system since that offered protection. However, gradually the population from Bangladesh and West Bengal started migrating. However, the reaction was more towards the foreigner from Bangladesh. Not against those from West Bengal, though the pain was felt equally from the migrant population irrespective of their origin.

Thus an exercise began against the gradual migration of the Bangla population into Assam and Tripura. This migration changed the opportunities for the native population and there was an outcry for the migration to stop. The Assamese insisted on stopping the migration across from Bangladesh, irrespective of Hindu Bangladeshi or Muslim Bangladeshi. It was to safeguard their jobs, opportunities. BJP exploited this opportunity and implemented their sense of nationality at the cost of the native demand to restrict the Bangladeshi. Though it changed the demography, there never was any concern about the increasing Muslim population, except for BJP, who knew Muslims would never vote for BJP. It was an astute exercise of gerrymandering.

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Immigration and Emigration:

Like water flows downstream, so do humans migrate towards opportunities, better environment, avoid persecution, etc. Migration this exists since eternity. Birds follow this path, animals migrate towards better pastures. There is no dearth of examples irrespective of species.

No nation or geography is devoid of migrants, and always there has been a reaction of the natives to such immigration. What concerns most is not the migration or the protest against migration but the quality of protest and the dismal intention of building barriers and mechanisms for reducing the influx. Let us revisit each of these phenomena individually.

Of course, we all know people gravitate towards a better quality of life, better opportunities, avoidance of persecution, atrocities, escape torture (asylum, refugees), and hardships, etc. However, immigrants have always benefited the nation since it provides the diversity or addition of skills and labor for proper growth. Rarely people migrate because of none of these factors. Opportunities exist and so people migrate. Immigration is thus a flux or movement of people towards opportunities, whereas emigration is a movement away from their native land. We are dealing with Immigration, not Emigration. We often consider nationals of one country migrating into another as immigration. However, intra-nation migration is more common than migration between countries.

Immigration and Emigration both have consequences for the local population and the nation in general. Immigration has a direct impact on resources and revenues. Economies change drastically if there is an exodus of the working population. They leave behind an aged population and carry revenue along with them. Thus policies have to be created to control migration.

Most evolved democracies have a mature mechanism for regulating migration. However, these mechanisms are continuously monitored and tweaked, as required, to control the flow to virtuously and humanely manage the cycle of migration. An evolved democracy hardly has a religious limitation as a filter for immigrants. N400, a naturalization form that is foundational for US immigration, represents one such mechanism. Naturalization is contingent on the answers provided in this form. Any misrepresentation has the potential for revoking citizenship. Similar mechanisms can be ascertained for migrants from nations where there is a potential for social impact. Such a mechanism was distorted with gerrymandering introduced through CAB and ILP.

Conclusion:

NRC will thus be a step ahead than Watan Cards or National Identity Card of Pakistan. Let us race to the bottom along with Pakistan! If you ask me, the entire fiasco of CAB and NRC has been managed in the usual BJP style like Demonetization, Surgical Strikes, GST and now CAB/NRC.

 

When most countries are accepting the Humans Rights, India is actually regressing like its Pakistani counterpart in upholding the rights of refugees. India lost its status as a secular nation, it is transitioning towards a Hindu National Identity inclusive only towards select religions. More so, the NRC and ILP have fractured the seven sisters from the North East into three categories, those having the ILP, those recently added to ILP and those tribals with a hybrid model.

Hurrah BJP! Welcome, Grand Mess!!

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Citations:

Nationalism, immigration and minorities

1. Nationalism, immigration and minorities

Explained: Where the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill does not apply

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SM.POP.NETM

Click to access MigrationReport2017_Highlights.pdf

Click to access MigrationReport2017_Highlights.pdf

Overseas Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Pakistani

Pakistan as a Return Migration Destination
https://www.prio.org/Publications/Publication/?x=8743

Explained: Where the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill does not apply

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/citizenship-bill-modi-protests-india.amp

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-12-16/india-citizenship-law-protests-spread-across-campuses

Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs), https://metropolisjapan.com/sealds-legacy/

10 stages of genocide. Where does India stand? #CAB https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/e8du1h/10_stages_of_genocide_where_does_india_stand_cab/

https://idsa.in/system/files/monograph/monograph56.pdf (Illegal Migration From Bangladesh).

Migration of Enclave dwellers – India and Bangladesh Swap Territory, Citizens in Landmark Enclave Exchange https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/india-and-bangladesh-swap-territory-citizens-landmark-enclave-exchange

https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935420-e-7 (Lhasa Tibetan Muslims)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/what-is-citizenship-amendment-bill-all-you-need-to-know-about-cab-bill-2019/articleshow/72449945.cms
https://www.hoover.org/research/how-should-we-value-immigrants-and-how-should-affect-immigration-reform