Hello,
If you are an Indian looking to understand about this, get off this turf. This is a 101 post and you can really do your homework better than this.
Since we are going to be talking a lot about this, remember these few things which we will discuss in the next few minutes:
CAA = Citizenship Amendment Act
NRC = National Register Citizens of India
BJP = Bharatiya Janta Party
Honorable Man = Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Home Minister = Amit Shah
Part 3: 2019
Part 1 and 2 will never be written because, to be honest, I am afraid somebody will find me and shoot me, or worse, my parents will disown me.
I am not kidding. Both of these fears are not exaggerated.
BJP - the Ruling Party has openly asked that I be shot:
Translation: ”Those who speak betray the nation: Shoot those bastards”
Context: Anyone asking questions about CAA and NRC is a Traitor to the ruling party.
The bad analogy here for Americans: Imagine your local leaders asking non-white people to be shot on sight for “looking at them too loud”.
And then actually getting the police to do it. The local police in BJP-ruled states has been murdering people too:
And make no mistake, the protests are still very sporadic: Just a bit of FUD and they will fizzle out.
Given the nearly 20 year prowess of BJP in doing FUD, it’s embarassing that they’ve not been able to counter the narrative so far. But let’s get to main point shall we?
Q. What is Citizenship Amendment Act?
The primary objective of CAA is two-fold:
Grant asylum and citizenship to minorities from neighbouring countries like Pakistan: you know it as the country whose Army sponsored Osama Bin Laden.
Flush out infiltrators (aka illegal immigrants) from the country
Where did I get this information? From my Union Home Minister ofcourse.
In his own words on Twitter:
There is nothing to be alarmed about in this. Narendra Modi is an Honorable Man.
India has defended minorities for thousands of years, welcoming Parsis, Jews, Muslims, Christians and what not over the years.
Our default is “Be nice, Be Respecful”.
Q. Then why are people on the streets?
A. Because we should look at what people are doing, not what they are saying.
For instance, if the “throw away illegal immigrants” rhetoric sounds familiar to you, it is:
The present actors in the Government have defined the religious extreme (while the previous was a incompetency extreme) again and again.
They’ve managed to do everything legally - but what is legal, is not always moral.
The other is this small issue with NRC.
Q. What is this NRC?
This entire exercise is contingent on an exercise called “produce the documents”.
What documents? That you’re Indian. Except that no Government issued Id is valid.
That is the NRC.
Beyond, that it’s legal jargon lost on me and you should ask the law experts. But frankly, they’re more pissed than I am.
What I do understand is a simple flow chart. And this is how this game works:
And in practice, this can terribly go wrong.
Indian Government has refused to recognize it’s own Passport and “Aadhar” (Social Security) as proof of Citizenship.
If you wake up tomorrow, and the Government refuses to acknowledge the documents they gave you to verify your identity — what the fuck do you do?
You take to the streets. That is what happened.
Q. So NRC is bad because it’s asking for Documents?
NOO. It’s not bad. It’s Evil.
Why? Because it’s Violently Discriminatory
The NRC is evil because it first revokes citizenship of everyone and then restores it selectively (via CAA) for some religions and excluding others like Muslims.
Worse, it creates room for future Governments to divide us in more ways.
I mean, why stop at Muslims? Why not throw away anyone whose name starts with R? Or how about A? Or J?
Like Jesus.
Of course, the fine print here is that the CAA doesn’t tamper with existing Indian Muslims. But that rhetoric is garbage and hides true intent.
For instance, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the issue — to condemn Muslims as Violent Protestors. He said “can recognise them by their clothes”.
This is because many Indian Muslims self-identify with a skull cap and a long white shirt, sometimes called a Kurta.
In protest to this specific comment, thousands took up the skull cap or Gandhi topi, wore a Kurta and came to the streets to sing the Indian National Anthem.
The back story here is what I opened with: Anyone who questions the present regime is immediately branded “anti-national”, a “traitor” in the public discourse.
Singing the national anthem while dressed as a Muslim is such a powerful imagery. This disarms the right wing and hence, discouraging violence by police.
It also absorbs patriotic-centrists like me back into the fold of public debate.
Ohk. But what if we prevent Muslims being hunted?
This will still fuck up a country in recession.
Now, Indians have seen this recently.
Demonetisation meant that large fraction of paper currency was made illegal by a single speech. And then Indians spent months standing in queues. Fucking up our small GDP from a growth rate of ~7% to ~4.5%.
It did not eliminate corruption, terrorism, and did nothing except to waste our productivity and time.
Even if you take everything that is on paper:
At 5% rejection rate (from when this was done in Assam), 65 Million Indians will lose their citizenships rightfully.
That is more than the population of California and Texas put together.
So yeah, I do not want to waste the country’s productive energy and time into submitting and verifying documents.
I’d personally much rather go back to my work in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning (AI?)
But I’ve been told the protests are all paid-for and fake news?
India wrote the playbook on peaceful powerful protests. We literally gave Mahatma Gandhi to the World. These methods fell down not one, but two empires: British Empire in India and South Africa.
Of course, some of the protestors are idiots and simply joining the bandwagon for the heck of it. And sometimes, they retaliate against police with stone pelting.
Angry people also destroy public property - the loudest symbols of the State.
Ohh, fuck. Sorry, wrong video.
This is the police itself destroying property to then arrest people, more urgently, shift the narrative against otherwise peaceful protests.
This is not to say that some protestors are not pissed enough to be violent. And frankly, if you were telling me - which they are that I’d have to “prove” my citizenship, after living my entire life here, I’m pretty damn pissed.
This is not to be let go easily, and they should be punished. Like how Dr. Arun Jaitley, the present Finance Minister was arrested for violent protests against the then-Government.
But we are not debating that, are we?
The debate is about the NRC-CAA itself.
There are idiots on both sides of this debate. There are “vested interests” on every side of this. Like in Assam, people are pissed because the new law throws out only Muslims and not Hindus!
I don’t think there is a mainstream centrist position on this thing yet. Which is fine. India is a funny place that way:
We smile when we get fucked, and even when we fuck up.
“Be Nice, Be Respectful” is truly the default.
What about God? Has he not spoken yet?
Given the gravity of the situation, All Ye God has been forced to intervene:
“Azaadi” - Freedom
That’s it. One word.
The word which galvanized Indians against British Colonialism, and then used to kill Hindus in Kashmir, has come back from it’s haunted past to take a stand against them.
Azaadi!
That’s the rallying cry of the season
FAQ
What is the backstory here, like in 2 minutes?
India shares our borders with lovely countries like Pakistan: you know it as the country which hid Osama Bin Laden. And the place which makes your footballs for FIFA World Cups.
Pakistan used to be a richer, fuck all country in the 1950s-70s with Chinese and American backing. It was unusually cruel to it’s own citizens: indulging in rape, murder and general gentlemanly behaviour. They fled en mass to India.
Bordering states of India: Assam, Bengal and Tripura got flooded with people. Interestingly, these people followed different religion: Islam. You might know it as the punching bag of the right wing and crutch of the left wing.
In practice, these people were just trying to not get raped and murdered. A hungry person has no God except hunger.
Since the shit got out of hand, India intervened. We fought a war on behalf of our Bangla brothers to give you Bangladesh. This war ended on December 16, 1971.
The country of amazing innovation in micro-loans, who also makes everything from your Levis Jeans to Nike shoes when China is not.
This immigration also fuelled local unrest in North East and almost fractured India. This led to Assam accord in 1985, and a demand for Citizen Registry in North Eastern India. Since most immigrants were Muslim, this also fuelled anti-Muslim sentiment in Indian minds.
The Government in 1970s was also authoritarian. In fact, the present Finance Minister - the roughly equivalent to your Treasury Secretary in American Cabinet, was a leader during those protests.
They’ve become the MONSTER they fought!
Why are Western folk not speaking on this issue?
There are always right wing western Indophiles who probably should not be heard, because they don’t have skin in this game or worse:
But then you should also listen to Nobel Laureate Dr. Venkataraman, who is rightfully, not Indian despite being born here:
Germans even came to the streets to remind us of our shared human history:
Will this not hurt the image of India in American minds?
Look American sir. Your President is an Orangutan with the nuance of a sledgehammer.
I think we both are beyond giving a damn about our image, internationally.
And since Independence, India has done pretty well for itself without selling ourselves to Americans or Russians.
We literally created the only opposition on moral grounds to both World Super Powers as a young, starved, dying nation. We made satellites. Sent them to space. Did nuclear research. Fed our hungry. Gave them milk. Made electricity. Built an army of doctors and engineers.
I can go on. So yeah, we are good.
As long as the mind is without fear, we are good.
PS: If you are thinking about taking responsibility for “shoot-me-in-the-face” American stupidity in defending Pakistan in 1971 and creating this mess - please go ahead. History will be kind to you.
Why are Indians abroad not protesting?
Some of them are. But frankly, either way - it should not matter.
We’re the people in front of bullets, on the roads and asking questions.
We appreciate the support, preferably vocally and loudly — but we are dying, so it’s not like this sloganeering is enough.
What is your personal skin in the game?
The personal skin in the game is that I am very selfish.
I was jubiliant when Modi built roads, electrified villages and started new colleges. I was delighted that he was tacitly responsible for legalizing same sex relationships (not marriage) in India. I am still happy that his corporate tax deductions imply higher investment returns for me.
And, I am trying to do my bit so that when I’m 50, and my kids ask me:
“What did I do in my 20s to help my people?”
My answer should be better than
“Meh, You know. Stuff. Chilling”
It’s pure posturing if you ask the cynic-in-me.
I am not even Muslim! Even if I was, I am a middle class, educated Indian: I have the documents, and I can produce them.
But what to do?
I have a duty to my people - the poor, the forgotten, and I’m trying to do what makes sense to me. That is it.
And to be honest, I’d much rather go back to writing software.
Nirant