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NRC climbdown

NRC climbdown

The Government comes out with some clarity on NRC a tad too late. It must address concerns of civil society

The civil unrest across the country over a citizenship law and identity documents has given us a primary lesson, that no matter what the electoral verdict, as a people we are good enough to defend our democracy. Finally, the ruling BJP has realised that its manifesto cannot become the nation’s own. That majority appeasement doesn’t work just as the minority variant hasn’t so long for the Congress. That ghettoisation of any minority will always find protectors from the majority community as thousands of Hindu lawyers and doctors attend to Muslim detainees in Delhi. Neighbourhood first. And that the aggrieved Muslims can rightfully claim the tricolour, be non-violent and rebel against stereotypes of being led by either the clergy or sectarian representatives. They can hit the streets on their own. So it is that a stung Government has thought it right to clarify norms that will determine the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and bust some myths regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Question is why it didn’t bother to have a wider discussion with all stakeholders or launch an information awareness campaign, like it did with the Goods and Services Tax (GST)? Why couldn’t it have initiated an all-party consult? What was the hurry to push it with brute force, knowing full well that questions about our legacy on this land would only fuel anxieties? Unless it wanted to set a new context of polarisation, otherisation  and fear. Now 15 lives have been lost in the cross-sectional protests over CAA and NRC. Can the Government innocently claim that it always meant well, that educated people were impatient about clauses and that fear-mongering was sponsored by an Opposition that’s not only scatter-brained but frankly resourceless? Besides, its latest clarifications are a climbdown from its stated positions on the subject. So the Aadhaar card, which the Government claimed could not be a valid proof of identity because of scanty information, will now be accepted to get your identity certificate. It turns out that 1987 will be the new cutoff year before which one doesn’t need to prove ancestry — You, your parents would have to be born before that year. For Assam, the cutoff date will be 1971. This means the clause of legacy data, which was the bedrock of the NRC compilation exercise, stands diluted. Even now the role of the registrar, who will be presiding over the documents, has not been defined. Neither have the new norms laid down any protocol to eliminate administrative arbitrariness and bribe-seeking. In the absence of any clarity, the present explainers are just about arresting a crisis in retrospect than a well thought-out strategy. Frankly, the Government is yet to spell out how the poor are going to procure documents, how the nationwide process would be executed logistically (everybody remembers the queues of demonetisation) or what it might additionally cost us if we are left out even inadvertently. And is such an elaborate exercise worth the cost considering that even if identified, illegal immigrants would not make more than a single-digit percentage of the population? There is still no clarity on addressing concerns in the North-east, where indigenous people do not want an extra drain on their resources by a new wave of refugees, even if they are Hindu. The Government was expected to allay fears but maintained its threatening rhetoric and will be guilty of allowing the situation to serve its partisan interests.

An equal share of the blame has to go to the Opposition for not converting this into a national debate on specifics and ceding the ground due to a lack of political will. Even if its leaders didn’t find Parliament conducive to hearing out their concerns, they could have spearheaded a movement demanding answers to questions bothering the polity. It is the space vacated by them that has been taken over by students now. And now that civil society has joined in, and the scale of the protests has become as remarkable as the breadth of participation, Opposition leaders are crawling out of the woodwork. The Congress failed miserably here, despite having the depth of seniority and experience. Neither could it get all its Chief Ministers to Delhi to make a point, nor could it get its articulate spokesmen and savvy speakers like Shashi Tharoor to even rally with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi at India Gate. Even regional leaders and Opposition Chief Ministers have not ventured out of their turfs, making them look like prisoners of votebank politics rather than escalating a major national issue. The citizenry’s challenge will be to sustain the fire in the absence of a leader. This is like walking the thin edge. For in the end, it is only through politics that it can be cleansed. On the other, politics corrupts the best of intentions.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)

NRC climbdown

NRC climbdown

The Government comes out with some clarity on NRC a tad too late. It must address concerns of civil society

The civil unrest across the country over a citizenship law and identity documents has given us a primary lesson, that no matter what the electoral verdict, as a people we are good enough to defend our democracy. Finally, the ruling BJP has realised that its manifesto cannot become the nation’s own. That majority appeasement doesn’t work just as the minority variant hasn’t so long for the Congress. That ghettoisation of any minority will always find protectors from the majority community as thousands of Hindu lawyers and doctors attend to Muslim detainees in Delhi. Neighbourhood first. And that the aggrieved Muslims can rightfully claim the tricolour, be non-violent and rebel against stereotypes of being led by either the clergy or sectarian representatives. They can hit the streets on their own. So it is that a stung Government has thought it right to clarify norms that will determine the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and bust some myths regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Question is why it didn’t bother to have a wider discussion with all stakeholders or launch an information awareness campaign, like it did with the Goods and Services Tax (GST)? Why couldn’t it have initiated an all-party consult? What was the hurry to push it with brute force, knowing full well that questions about our legacy on this land would only fuel anxieties? Unless it wanted to set a new context of polarisation, otherisation  and fear. Now 15 lives have been lost in the cross-sectional protests over CAA and NRC. Can the Government innocently claim that it always meant well, that educated people were impatient about clauses and that fear-mongering was sponsored by an Opposition that’s not only scatter-brained but frankly resourceless? Besides, its latest clarifications are a climbdown from its stated positions on the subject. So the Aadhaar card, which the Government claimed could not be a valid proof of identity because of scanty information, will now be accepted to get your identity certificate. It turns out that 1987 will be the new cutoff year before which one doesn’t need to prove ancestry — You, your parents would have to be born before that year. For Assam, the cutoff date will be 1971. This means the clause of legacy data, which was the bedrock of the NRC compilation exercise, stands diluted. Even now the role of the registrar, who will be presiding over the documents, has not been defined. Neither have the new norms laid down any protocol to eliminate administrative arbitrariness and bribe-seeking. In the absence of any clarity, the present explainers are just about arresting a crisis in retrospect than a well thought-out strategy. Frankly, the Government is yet to spell out how the poor are going to procure documents, how the nationwide process would be executed logistically (everybody remembers the queues of demonetisation) or what it might additionally cost us if we are left out even inadvertently. And is such an elaborate exercise worth the cost considering that even if identified, illegal immigrants would not make more than a single-digit percentage of the population? There is still no clarity on addressing concerns in the North-east, where indigenous people do not want an extra drain on their resources by a new wave of refugees, even if they are Hindu. The Government was expected to allay fears but maintained its threatening rhetoric and will be guilty of allowing the situation to serve its partisan interests.

An equal share of the blame has to go to the Opposition for not converting this into a national debate on specifics and ceding the ground due to a lack of political will. Even if its leaders didn’t find Parliament conducive to hearing out their concerns, they could have spearheaded a movement demanding answers to questions bothering the polity. It is the space vacated by them that has been taken over by students now. And now that civil society has joined in, and the scale of the protests has become as remarkable as the breadth of participation, Opposition leaders are crawling out of the woodwork. The Congress failed miserably here, despite having the depth of seniority and experience. Neither could it get all its Chief Ministers to Delhi to make a point, nor could it get its articulate spokesmen and savvy speakers like Shashi Tharoor to even rally with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi at India Gate. Even regional leaders and Opposition Chief Ministers have not ventured out of their turfs, making them look like prisoners of votebank politics rather than escalating a major national issue. The citizenry’s challenge will be to sustain the fire in the absence of a leader. This is like walking the thin edge. For in the end, it is only through politics that it can be cleansed. On the other, politics corrupts the best of intentions.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)

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