Following Crackdown On Anti-CAA Protests, World Is Looking At India With Distaste And Dismay

바카라�As India violence gets worse, police are accused of abusing Muslims바카라� (New York Times, January 3). 바카라�As repression in India gets worse, notable figures remain silent바카라� (Washington Post, January 4). "바카라�We are not safe': India바카라�s Muslims tell of wave of police brutality바카라� (Guardian, January 3). Conservative papers that this government wants to think well of it actually think that India is in trouble. The Financial Times asks if 바카라�India risks sliding into a second Emergency바카라�. Whether we agree with the world is not the point: many Indians and particularly Hindus will disagree that things are bad in India or that this government is deliberately bullying its citizens.

The point is that this is how the world is viewing us. The question is why are they looking at us in unambiguous and disapproving terms. The truth is that the facts are against us. There is a reason that the protests in India against the citizenship laws are being led by India바카라�s Muslims. They are the target of the law and they know this. Let us have a look at what the undisputed facts are.

First, in Assam, the NRC process began with Local Verification Officers striking off people from the voters바카라� list, calling them D-Voters (doubtful voters). Such D-Voters had no right to vote in elections once they had been put on this list. The process for putting them on this list was not transparent and Gauhati High Court and India바카라�s Supreme Court colluded in this, using reckless language such as 바카라�external aggression바카라�.

Second, on August 3, 2019, PTI reported: 바카라�Govt to prepare National Population Register to lay foundation for pan-India NRC.바카라� The report says that "in pursuance of sub-rule(4) of rule 3 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, the central government hereby decides to prepare and update the Population Register바카라� and the field work for house-to-house enumeration throughout the country except Assam for collection of information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of local registrar shall be undertaken between the 1st day of April, 2020 to 30th September, 2020," said a notification issued by Vivek Joshi, Registrar General of Citizen Registration and Census Commissioner.바카라� The report said that president Ram Nath Kovind, in his address to the Lok Sabha, on June 20 that the government had decided to implement the National Register of Citizens on priority basis. India's prime minister is either ignorant or lying when he says that there has been no discussion of NRC.

Third, on March 26, 2018, Reserve Bank of India issued notification No. FEMA 21(R)/2018-RB which said that "A person being a citizen of Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan belonging to minority communities in those countries, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who is residing in India and has been granted a Long Term Visa by the Central Government may purchase only one residential immovable property in India as dwelling unit for self-occupation and only one immovable property for carrying out self-employment바카라�바카라�

How would RBI know which religion individuals belonged to? Would we start now having to declare our religion to open a bank account? This was not thought through by the government and not noticed at the time. When this came to light, last week, the Union Home Secretary sent out a tweet saying 바카라�Indian citizens바카라� would not have to declare their religion. The problem, of course, is who decides who is a citizen and who is an immigrant?

The facts in the minds of Muslims are clear, and they are as follows: this government has been planning for some time to introduce a process which will weed out India바카라�s Muslims. First, there will be a bureaucratic purge of Muslim names from the voter list. Then, these people who are 바카라�doubtful바카라� will have to present themselves before other bureaucrats and prove their innocence. What would happen in the interim? Along with their D-voter status, would come a loss of their passport and license, their right over their property (because only non-Muslims are allowed, according to the RBI circular), their right to have a bank account and a job.

The government does not even need to build all the concentration camps, called 바카라�detention centres바카라�, around the country. Merely doing what has been mentioned above would pretty much take care of the Muslims of India permanently. Those Muslims who ultimately escape would still have to live with the trauma of not knowing whether they will be facing this trial. Can we understand now why they are leading the protests? They have zero confidence in the words and assurances of the prime minister and home minister, and I do not blame them. In fact, I am on their side.

Fourteen of the 16 people killed in UP바카라�s violence were killed by bullets fired by police but our prime minister바카라�s narrative is the violence by the protestors. This is why the world is looking at India with distaste and dismay, and who can say that they are wrong in thinking about us in that way? 

(Aakar Patel is a columnist and a writer. Views expressed are personal).