Union Home Minister Amit Shah has fired a fresh salvo by announcing on Thursday that the central government will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) once the Covid19 spread ends. The “promise” is also that citizenship rights will be extended to “all our brothers and sisters” – meaning the Hindu migrants from Bangladesh. At the receiving end of this resolve will be the large army of Muslims who have come over to India in the past several years, whose deportation mainly from Assam and West Bengal will be done by the Centre once the CAA implementation is carried forward.
The anti-CAA protests in Delhi before the start of the Covid season had gained considerable backing from the minority community and support to it came also from the Indian Left, while the Congress took a cautious stand. The agitation turned violent at one turn leading to some deaths and injuries to many. However, the scare about the Covid-spread halted the government drive to implement CAA and NRC (national registry of citizens); and the agitation ended in a whimper. Here is guarantee that a fresh bout of protests could erupt in the North and the East, in particular, over this resolve to push the CAA. As a matter of fact, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as also the creation of a registry therein cannot be faulted for the reason that a government that means business cannot allow wholesale migration of people or labour from neighbouring nations. India is believed to have had an influx of over five crore people from Bangladesh over a period of time, post the Mukti-Bahini movement that set itself against the Pakistani domination of the eastern Bengali-speaking province. The Liberation having been achieved with the help of India in 1971, and in the face of the Pakistani Army’s atrocities against the Hindu population there, India welcomed people from there with open arms. In due course of time, the borders being porous and without any security check for most part, the influx of Bangladeshis carried on unhindered until recently. It was after the Modi government came to power in Delhi that the eastern borders were provided with security cover.
Be that as it may, India must accept its failure to check the influx for long years. This calls for a humanitarian approach vis-à-vis those who have come here and settled down for years and started a full life. The Modi government faced flak for the religious discrimination that the CAA allegedly sought to introduce vis-à-vis the migrant issues. This has made the task of the central government more complicated.
