How backward is India?
If you're born there, there is usually a record.
If you've been naturalized there's a record.
Poverty has nothing to do with it.
If India can't keep track of it's birth and immigration, they've a much bigger problem. How does this single out Muslims?
People have documents. People have been citizens. They have voted. People are born and educated in India. But they have to prove their citizenship again through a prescribed set of documents. This can be bothersome for all but really worrisome for Muslims.
The combination of CAA and NRC is diabolic. NRC has been implemented in the state of Assam to weed out illegal immigrants. In NRC, one needed to establish the birth of parents too. So in NRC of Assam state, more Hindus than Muslims got identified as illegal immigrants. Therefore, CAA was brought in by way of a bill to exclude Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs from this illegal list.
India indeed is backward in large patches. All records may not be available with individuals, especially in villages. Even my wife does not have her birth certificate. Very few people will be able to provide their parents birth certificates. I cannot. If I were a Muslim, I would be really worried.
CAA is only one part of the issue. A section of government issues veiled threats of implementing Assam like NRC all over India. All those who cannot prove citizenship as per government’s requirements will be declared illegal through NRC.But through CAA all but Muslims will be accommodated.
CAA and NRC, if implemented country wide, will truly be diabolical show of discrimination for one particular community. Millions of Muslims chose secular India as their home, rejecting Shariah type Pakistan in 1947. They are integral part of India. But suddenly now they and their progeny will face the effect of country-wide NRC, if implemented, the worst.
Home minister Amit Shah and many in the rightist government have asserted in Parliament and in public that country wide NRC would be implemented. When the situation became volatile with all sections of population opposing the NRC (especially NRC in tandem with CAA), PM said that government was not contemplating the NRC. But many, including me, do not believe this PM. He is not known for truth.
I know many Muslims who are law abiding and god fearing citizens of India. They have hugely enriched India in culture, science, and business. I can only imagine their fears and apprehensions. NRC and CAA in tandem will be a deadly weapon in hands of zealot officials. Who will police them?
I hope that sanity returns soon.
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