AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF INDIA by 106 senior retired government officers: INDIA DOES NOT NEED THE CAA-NPR-NRIC
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF INDIA:
INDIA DOES NOT NEED THE CAA-NPR-NRIC
9 January 2020
Dear Fellow Citizens of India,
Over the past few weeks, many of you have
been understandably agitated over the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment
Act, 2019 ("CAA"). Your fears have been compounded by the contradictory
and confusing statements made by spokespersons of the Government of India on
the implementation of the National Register of Indian Citizens
("NRIC"), Though that
government now seeks to delink the National Population Register (“NPR”) from the
NRIC, we, the Constitutional Conduct Group, comprising former civil servants
from the All-India and Central Services committed to the Constitution of India,
consider it our duty to inform you that the three issues are linked, acquaint
you with the facts regarding the NPR, NRIC and the CAA and emphasise why these
measures need to be resolutely opposed. For easy comprehension, we are listing
the issues pointwise:
1 1. There is no need for the NPR
and NRIC
Both the NPR and NRIC exercises flow out of
the amendments in 2003 to the Citizenship Act, 1955 (“1955 Act”) and the
Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards)
Rules, 2003 ("2003 Rules") framed by the then NDA government in 2003.
The NPR has nothing to do with the Census of India, which is conducted every
ten years and is next due in 2021. While the Census collects information about
all residents of Indiawithout listing their names, the NPR is a list of names
of all those who have lived in India for over six months, regardless of their
nationality. A Population Register will contain the list of persons usually
residing within a specified local area (village/town/ward/demarcated area).
The NRIC will effectively be a subset of the
Population Registers for the entire country. The 2003 Rules provide for
verification of the details in the Population Register by the Local Registrar
(normally a taluka or town functionary) who will separate out cases of doubtful
citizenship and conduct further enquiries. After carrying out enquiries in
respect of residents whose citizenship status is suspect, the Local Registrar
will prepare a draft Local Register of Indian Citizens, which would exclude
those not able to establish, through documentary proof, their claim to be
citizens of India.
It is at this stage that the experience of
the citizens of Assam can cause apprehensions in the minds of those who are
required to establish their citizenship, whether or not they profess any
religion. The NPR 2020, unlike the NPR 2010, asks not only for the names of the
parents of the resident, but also seeks to also record their dates and places
of birth. A person who is not able to furnish these details for his/her parents
or, for that matter, for himself/herself, could well be classified a “doubtful
citizen”.
The 2003 amendments to the 1955 Act(vide
Sections 3 (b), 3 (c) and 14A) and the consequent introduction of the 2003
Rules seem to indicate an undue obsession about illegal migrants, without any
factual basis. We fail to understand the need for a nationwide identification
of “illegal migrants”, which is what the NRIC in effect amounts to, when census
statistics over the past seven decades do not show any major demographic
shifts, except in certain pockets in some areas of North-Eastern and Eastern
India adjoining our neighbouring countries.
We are apprehensive that the vast powers to
include or exclude a person from the Local Register of Indian Citizens that is
going to be vested in the bureaucracy at a fairly junior level has the scope to
be employed in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner, subject to local
pressures and to meet specific political objectives, not to mention the
unbridled scope for large-scale corruption. Added to this is the provision for
objections to the draft Local Register from any person. The Assam NRC exercise
has thrown up the dangers of such a large-scale exercise: lakhs of citizens
have been made to spend their life’s savings running from pillar to post to
establish their citizenship credentials. Worrying reports are already coming in
of people in different parts of India rushing in panic to obtain the necessary
birth documents. The problem is magnified in a country where the maintenance of
birth records is poor, coupled with highly inefficient birth registration
systems. Errors of inclusion and exclusion have been a feature of all
large-scale surveys in India, the Below Poverty Line survey and the
Socio-Economic Caste Census being prime examples. The recently completed NRC
exercise in Assam has been equally error-ridden and has led to major
discontent. Indeed the State Government itself, with the BJP in power, has
rejected its own NRC data, an extremely ludicrous scenario.
The provisions of the CAA, coupled with
rather aggressive statements over the past few years from the highest levels of
this government, rightly cause deep unease in India’s Muslim community, which
has already faced discrimination and attacks on issues ranging from allegations
of love jihadto cattle smuggling and beef consumption. That the Muslim
community has had to face the brunt of police action in recent days only in
those states where the local police is controlled by the party in power at the
centre only adds credence to the widespread feeling that the NPR-NRIC exercise
could be used for selective targeting of specific communities and individuals.
Added to the inconvenience that the NPR
would put the common person through is the unnecessary expenditure on the NPR
exercise, when data which is now to be gathered is already available through
the Aadhaar system: these include name, address, date of birth,
father/husband’s name and gender. Most Indian citizens are already covered by
Aadhaar. The purpose of gathering a lot of the additional data (over and above
the Aadhaar details) is unclear and will only give rise to the reasonable
apprehension that the bona fide citizen could be enmeshed in an interminable,
costly bureaucratic exercise if his/her citizenship status comes under doubt.
Our group of former civil servants, with
many years of service in the public sphere, is firmly of the view that both the
NPR and the NRIC are unnecessary and wasteful exercises, which will cause
hardship to the public at large and will also entail public expenditure that is
better spent on schemes benefiting the poor and disadvantaged sections of
society. They also constitute an invasion of the citizens’ right to privacy,
since a lot of information, including Aadhaar, mobile numbers and voter IDs
will be listed in a document, with scope for misuse.
2. Why
authorise widespread setting up of Foreigners’ Tribunals and detention camps?:
The Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order,
2019 (issued on 30 May 2019) has unnecessarily stoked fears that Foreigners’
Tribunals can now be set up on the orders of any District Magistrate in India
and is the precursor to a widespread exercise to identify “illegal migrants”.
While the central government may contend that there is no such intention, it
was surely impolitic, given the prevailing atmosphere in Assam and elsewhere,
to issue such blanket orders delegating powers for constituting Foreigners’
Tribunals. The experience with Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam has been, to put
it bluntly, traumatic for those at the receiving end. After running the gamut
of gathering documents and answering objections to their citizenship claims,
“doubtful citizens” have also had to contend with these Tribunals, the
composition and functioning of which were highly discretionary and arbitrary.
Consequently, a number of citizens lost their lives in the quest for affirming
citizenship or have had to suffer the indignity of incarceration in detention
camps.
There have also been media reports, not
denied by the Government of India, that orders for setting up detention camps
have been given to all state governments. We are frankly bemused by the Prime
Minister’s recent statement that no such camps are in existence, when reports
have documented the construction of such camps in states as far apart as
Goalpara in Assam and Nelamangala in Karnataka and the intention to construct a
detention centre in Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra. The Government of India has not
come out with any statistics to show that the “illegal migrants” problem in
India is so severe that it requires the large-scale construction of detention
camps all over the country.
3. The
constitutional and moral untenability of the CAA:
We
have our grave reservations about the constitutional validity of the CAA
provisions, which we also consider to be morally indefensible. We would like to
emphasise that a statute that consciously excludes the Muslim religion from its
purview is bound to give rise to apprehensions in what is a very large segment
of India’s population. A formulation that focused on those suffering
persecution (religious, political, social) in any country in the world would
not only have calmed local apprehensions but would also have been appreciated
by the international community. In its current formulation, the CAA does not
even mention the word "persecuted", probably because using this word
in the context of Afghanistan and Bangladesh would have marred India's
relations with these countries. Given that the Government of India has powers
to grant citizenship after a migrant has completed eleven years in India, it would
be instructive to know whether the Government of India has cleared all pending
cases of “illegal migrants” till end-2008. Since the discretion to grant
citizenship and to exempt individuals/groups from the purview of the Passport
Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946 lies entirely with the Government of
India, this discretion could have been exercised on a case by case basis by the
Government of India without any need to go through the exercise of the CAA and
mentioning specific communities from specific countries.
What
has given rise to grave apprehensions about the intentions of the Government of
India has been the rash of statements by Ministers of the Government of India
in recent times, linking the NRIC and the CAA. The Prime Minister’s statement at
a public meeting in Delhi on 22 December that the CAA and the NRIC are not
linked contradicts the avermentsof his Home Minister on repeated occasions in
various fora. In such a welter of conflicting and confusing utterances, it is
hardly surprising that the ordinary citizen is left bewildered and is overcome
by unknown fears, more so when government has not entered into any dialogue on
this issue. At a time when the economic situation in the country warrants the
closest attention of the government, India can ill afford a situation where the
citizenry and the government enter into confrontation on the roads. Nor is it
desirable to have a situation where the majority of State Governments are not
inclined to implement the NPR/NRIC, leading to an impasse in centre-state
relations, so crucial in a federal set up like India. Above all, we see a
situation developing where India is in danger of losing international goodwill
and alienating its immediate neighbours, with adverse consequences for the
security set-up in the sub-continent. India also stands to lose its position as
a moral beacon guiding many other countries on the path to liberal democracy.
We,
therefore, urge our fellow citizens to insist, as we do, that the Government of
India pay heed to the voice of the citizens of India and take the following
steps at the earliest:
(1) Repeal
Sections 14A and 18 (2) (ia) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, pertaining to the
issue of national identity cards and its procedures and the Citizenship
(Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 in
its entirety.
(2) Withdraw
the Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order, 2019 and withdraw all instructions
for construction of detention camps.
(3) Repeal
the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
CONSTITUTIONAL CONDUCT GROUP
(106 signatories, as below)
1. Anita
Agnihotri IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Social
Justice Empowerment, GoI
2. Salahuddin
Ahmad IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
3. V.S.
Ailawadi IAS (Retd.) Former Vice Chairman, Delhi Development
Authority
4. S.P.
Ambrose IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of
Shipping & Transport, GoI
5. Anand
Arni R&AW (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat,
GoI
6. Mohinderpal
Aulakh IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police
(Jails), Govt. of Punjab
7. N.
Bala Baskar IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (Finance),
Ministry of External Affairs, GoI
8. Vappala
Balachandran IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet
Secretariat, GoI
9. Gopalan
Balagopal IAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West
Bengal
10. Chandrashekhar
Balakrishnan IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI
11. Sharad
Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
12. Madhu
Bhaduri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal
13. Meeran
C Borwankar IPS (Retd.) Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and
Development, GoI
14. Ravi
Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port
Trust, GoI
15. Sundar
Burra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
16. R.
Chandramohan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Transport and
Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
17. K.M.
Chandrasekhar IAS (Retd.) Former Cabinet Secretary, GoI
18. Rachel
Chatterjee IAS (Retd.) Former Special Chief Secretary,
Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh
19. Kalyani
Chaudhuri IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt.
of West Bengal
20. Anna
Dani IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt.
of Maharashtra
21. Surjit
K. Das IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Uttarakhand
22. Vibha
Puri Das IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal
Affairs, GoI
23. P.R.
Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of
India, GoI
24. Nareshwar
Dayal IFS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of External
Affairs and former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
25. Pradeep
K. Deb IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI
26. Nitin
Desai IES (Retd.) Former Secretary and Chief Economic
Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI
27. Keshav
Desiraju IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
28. M.G.
Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana
29. Sushil
Dubey IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden
30. K.P.
Fabian IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy
31. Prabhu
Ghate IAS (Retd.) Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI
32. Arif
Ghauri IRS (Retd.) Former Governance Adviser, DFID, Govt. of
the United Kingdom (on deputation)
33. Gourisankar
Ghosh IAS (Retd.) Former Mission Director, National Drinking
Water Mission, GoI
34. S.K.
Guha IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Department of
Women & Child Development, GoI
35. Meena
Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI
36. Ravi
Vira Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of
India
37. Wajahat
Habibullah IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, GoI and Chief
Information Commissioner
38. Deepa
Hari IRS (Resigned)
39. Sajjad
Hassan IAS (Retd.) Former Commissioner (Planning), Govt. of Manipur
40. Siraj
Hussain IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of
Agriculture, GoI
41. Kamal
Jaswal IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of
Information Technology, GoI
42. Jagdish
Joshi IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary
(Planning), Govt. of Maharashtra
43. Najeeb
Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi
44. Rahul
Khullar IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India
45. K.
John Koshy IAS (Retd.) Former State Chief Information
Commissioner, West Bengal
46. Ajai
Kumar IFoS(Retd.) Former Director, Ministry of Agriculture,
GoI
47. Arun
Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority, GoI
48. Brijesh
Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of
Information Technology, GoI
49. P.K.
Lahiri IAS (Retd.) Former Executive Director, Asian
Development Bank
50. Subodh
Lal IPoS (Resigned) Former Deputy Director General,
Ministry of Communications, GoI
51. S.K.
Lambah IFS (Retd.) Former Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of India
52. P.M.S.
Malik IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar &
Special Secretary, MEA, GoI
53. Harsh
Mander IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
54. Lalit
Mathur IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, National
Institute of Rural Development, GoI
55. Aditi
Mehta IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt.
of Rajasthan
56. Shivshankar
Menon IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former
National Security Adviser
57. Sonalini
Mirchandani IFS (Resigned) GoI
58. Sunil
Mitra IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI
59. Deb
Mukharji IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh
and former Ambassador to Nepal
60. Shiv
Shankar Mukherjee IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to the United
Kingdom
61. Pranab
S. Mukhopadhyay IAS (Retd.) Former Director, Institute of Port
Management, GoI
62. Sobha
Nambisan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary (Planning),
Govt. of Karnataka
63. P.G.J.
Nampoothiri IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt.
of Gujarat
64. Surendra
Nath IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
65. P.A.
Nazareth IFS (Retd.) GoI
66. Amitabha
Pande IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
67. Alok
Perti IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI
68. R.M.
Premkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Maharashtra
69. T.R.
Raghunandan IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Panchayati Raj, GoI
70. N.K.
Raghupathy IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Staff Selection
Commission, GoI
71. V.P.
Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity
Regulatory Commission
72. C.
Babu Rajeev IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, GoI
73. K.
Sujatha Rao IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
74. M.Y.
Rao IAS (Retd.)
75. Satwant
Reddy IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Chemicals and
Petrochemicals, GoI
76. Julio
Ribeiro IPS (Retd.) Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab
& former Ambassador to Romania
77. Aruna
Roy IAS (Resigned)
78. Manabendra
N. Roy IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt.
of West Bengal
79. Deepak
Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of
Himachal Pradesh
80. G.
Sankaran IC&CES (Retd.) Former President, Customs, Excise and
Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal
81. Shyam
Saran IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary and Former
Chairman, National Security Advisory Board
82. S.
Satyabhama IAS (Retd.) Former Chairperson, National Seeds
Corporation, GoI
83. N.C.
Saxena IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI
84. Ardhendu
Sen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
85. Abhijit
Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI
86. Aftab
Seth IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan
87. Ashok
Kumar Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia
88. Navrekha
Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Indonesia
89. Pravesh
Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt.
of Madhya Pradesh
90. Raju
Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of
Uttar Pradesh
91. Rashmi
Shukla Sharma IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of
Madhya Pradesh
92. Har
Mander Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, ESI Corporation,
GoI
93. Padamvir
Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Director, LBSNAA, Mussoorie, GoI
94. Satyavir
Singh IRS (Retd.) Former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI
95. Sujatha
Singh IFS (Retd.) Former Foreign Secretary, GoI
96. Tirlochan
Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, National Commission for
Minorities, GoI
97. Jawhar
Sircar IAS
(Retd.) Former
Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI, &former CEO, Prasar Bharati
98. Narendra
Sisodia IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI
99. Manoj
Srivastava IAS (Retd.) Former Commissioner, Departmental
Enquiries (Chief Secretary rank)
100. Sanjivi
Sundar IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Surface
Transport, GoI
101. Parveen
Talha IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission
102. Thanksy
Thekkekera IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary,
Minorities Development, Govt. of Maharashtra
103. P.S.S.
Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission
104. Geetha
Thoopal IRAS (Retd.) Former General Manager, Metro Railway,
Kolkata
105. Hindal
Tyabji IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of
Jammu & Kashmir
106. Ramani
Venkatesan IAS
(Retd.) Former Director General,
YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra
