The split wide open: India is at risk of alienating allies by going ahead with citizenship programme

By Dilip -
Vappala Balachandran
Ex-special secretary, cabinet secretariat

The crescendo in US-India relations which reached its zenith with the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston on September 22 has crashed into a diminuendo within three months after the August 5 crackdown in Kashmir, passage of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) and the possibility of nationwide NRC. The reason is the growing perception that India is a violator of human rights and religious freedom.

The US Congress, its committees and commissions, whose members were paraded during the PM’s Madison Avenue event, and at ‘Howdy, Modi!’, are now being accused of interfering in our domestic affairs. US congressional circles have found it difficult to accept our official spokesperson’s statement in response to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) release on the CAB. His defence that the Bill was meant to benefit ‘persecuted religious minorities already in India’ was unacceptable as it excluded Muslim refugees in India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Rohingya and Sri Lankan Tamils. The USCIRF had complained that the CAB, which lays down a pathway to citizenship that specifically excludes Muslims, was a dangerous turn and would ‘strip citizenship from millions of Muslims’, together with the NRC process.
The passage of the CAB was greeted by violent protests in the Northeast. Even BJP MPs from there publicly admitted that there was a lot of misunderstanding about the Bill. Mature voices had advised Home Minister Amit Shah not to hurry up with the Bill unless the provisions were explained to the affected people. There was also a request to refer it to a select committee. That the BJP, with its fabled propaganda prowess, is not able to counter rumour-mongering is evident by the statement of its MP from Tezpur that lakhs were pouring into Assam through the broken Bangladesh border gates.

Meanwhile, our continued crackdown in Kashmir would be discussed by the US House of Representatives through a congressional resolution, urging India to ‘end restrictions on communications in J&K as swiftly as possible and preserve religious freedom for all residents’. The discussion is taking place at a time when their sympathy with India for Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is being replaced by deep anxiety over continued detention of even pro-Indian Kashmiri politicians.

The continued lockdown has almost killed Kashmir’s tourism. A report said domestic tourist arrivals were only 32,000 between August and November, whereas it was 2.49 lakh during the same period last year, a drop by 87%. Foreign tourist arrivals had dropped by 82%. The approach to the revered Srinagar Jamia Masjid was opened only on November 23 for the first time in 109 days, although the mosque was shut because the Mirwaiz was under house arrest... read more:

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/the-split-wide-open-10660

see also
‘Am glad I went’: Ramachandra Guha explains why he joined CAA protests
Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Discrimination, not justice: Hope this generation does a better job of navigating the struggle than the one that came before
Kamal Haasan meets Madras University students, says we are moving towards a dictatorship
Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
Jairus Banaji on the history of Indian capitalists; and the BJP's ongoing assault on basic human rights




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