India’s Citizenship Bill
Is it the end of a pluralistic and secular India?
Coming on the heels of the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) policy in Assam, does the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), one wonders, herald the end of a pluralistic and secular India, and the fulfilment of the dream of the RSS and its founders like Savarkar? What is so ominously clear is the end of a pluralistic and secular state as far as India is concerned, because the Bill, once the legislative process is completed, will strike at the very fundamental principles and ethos on which the country's founding fathers had established it. And it will validate communal politics in India, which the BJP government had no pretentions about since it came to power in the Centre in India.
Admittedly, elected leaders do have the right to implement policies which in their wisdom they see as beneficial to the country and its people. But popular mandate does not allow for the kind of politics where brute majority in parliament is exploited for partisan politics that strikes at the basic ethos of a nation. This, along with the NRC, we are constrained to say, is blatantly discriminatory towards the Muslims. What we see as even more worrisome is that the CAB directly encourages migration of Hindus from Bangladesh.
India's soul, we dare say, is being jaundiced. That's a pity and we say this from our own experience when the fundamental tenet of the nation—secularism—was deleted from the Constitution of Bangladesh. We say this also out of a feeling of apprehension and a sense of despondency as well. Because, India was cited, not only by Bangladesh but also the world, as an example of a pluralistic, inclusive nation with a syncretic culture and eclectic society. What we see now is the retrogression of a nation which once exemplified "unity in diversity" to an exclusively Hindu state where only one religion will prevail. That, we regrettably say, will strike the very soul of India. And the consequence of this policy will certainly reach its neighbouring countries too—to which India may not remain impervious.