Politics Begins

Political battle lines over NRC have been drawn and the debate is likely to get heated as elections approach

If anyone was naïve enough to think the publication of the final draft of the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) for Assam on Monday would provide finality on the issue of who is a bona fide Indian citizen resident in that State, the reactions and dog-whistles to core constituencies by various political parties across the spectrum put an end to that forlorn hope pretty rapidly. The BJP, after led by its permanently in aggression mode president Amit Shah has already given short shrift to the very circumspect reactions of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the its Assam Chief Minister Sarabananda Sonowal who emphasised, respectively, that the 40 lakh individuals who have not been included in the NRC would have ample opportunity for corrections/rectification and iterated that no genuine Indian citizen would be kept out. And why shouldn’t Shah take credit? He is absolutely correct in stating that it was the Congress led by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi which signed the Assam Accord in 1985 of which an updated NRC was a key component but it is the BJP which has shown the political courage, albeit under Supreme Court directions, to implement the decision. Shah’s attack on the Opposition is also valid; do the parties opposing the move want to shield illegal foreigners in India who are a burden on a resource-starved nation still grappling with providing basic amenities and security to its citizens and have the potential to upend the demographic balance in a highly sensitive border State such as Assam? These are not the questions Congress and other Opposition parties can duck in perpetuity. The BJP announced in its manifesto it would take steps including strengthening the borders and publishing an updated NRC for the first time since 1951 and it has. There can be no quarrel with that. What needs further probing, however, is what the Government intends to do with the 40 lakh (or some less after the appeals process is over) illegals? Bangladesh has already washed its hands off them and statements from BJP motormouths such as a legislator who reportedly said “they should be shot if they don’t go back where they came from” don’t help inspire confidence in a sober approach to the issue. Also, the need if any for an NCR-template exercise in West Bengal and Rajasthan, not to mention in many other States of the Union, has been raised by some and the BJP ought to clarify its position on that demand.

The Congress, for its part, is stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place on the issue. It can hardly wash its hands off the strong stand taken by Indira Gandhi that refugees/migrants who entered Assam, West Bengal and other States bordering pre-1971 East Pakistan later when Bangladesh was liberated would be sent back once hostilities ceased and peace returned. Her son and successor as Prime Minister too signed up for such a policy when he signed the Assam Accord. The fact that successive Congress State Governments used procrastination as a policy will hardly embellish their governance record. Further, the Congress does not have any sensible alternative top offer. Its stand is premised solely on doubting the intent of the BJP which is a stratagem that is likely to be subject to the law of diminishing returns not just in Assam but across India. Its only recourse it to play the ‘humanitarian aspect’ line. Powerful regional leaders such as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, are reacting so strongly against the publication of the NCR not just as it is being facilely assumed only to shore up her linguistic community (Bengali-speaking) or minority community (Muslim) support but because her administration is worried about the flow of lakhs of people declared illegal migrants into the State she governs. Politically, therefore, she has made a virtue out of the inevitable and announced they would all be welcome, burnishing her humanitarian credentials in the process.

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Courtesy: Pioneer: 02 August 2018