From Mamata’s bloodbath comment to Amit Shah’s call to push out the Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam, the NRC issue has led to not just ugly politics playing out but even the average Assamese on ground is feeling scared.
Speaking at the Osama Talha Memorial Lecture, 22nd Governor of West Bengal and grandson to Mahatma Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi a retired IAS officer and diplomat sent out a warning to those who were playing petty politics on the citizenship matter.
Speaking for India as a whole on the theme Hum Hind Ki Awaam, Gandhi said, “The register for citizenship, has been much debated in India and has its roots date back to 1951 when the first register was prepared. What is happening now is a litmus test of the efficacy of the Indian Constitution. Citizenship which is not religion neutral is alien to the soul of India. ”
It was in 1985 the Assam accord, a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement in New Delhi on 15 August 1985.
The future of over 40 lakh people in Assam hangs in the balance with no comments coming from the government of the day on around 40.07 lakh applicants, not finding a place in the register for citizens of Assam. As per the Registrar General of India 2,89,83,677 people were found to be eligible for inclusion in the complete draft of the ambitious NRC out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants. Assam is the first Indian state where the NRC is being updated after 1951, with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date.
Newspaper reports show – Total of 62,614 people were involved in the entire process, of which 52,038 were government employees. Over 50 software applications were developed for the process by IT professionals, while 102 people in the NRC call centre received 10.68 lakh calls during the application phase.
Gandhi explained – while Illegal immigration has a direct bearing on demography, even in the earlier days of the plans to have a citizens register there were significant reservations.
He said going beyond rhetoric what is needed is that one see whether Bangladeshi immigration is actually happening.
There are 16 documents of which if you have any one you are a citizen of the country, he added.
In most unequivocal terms he urged those in a position of power ( lawmakers ) to look into the Citizenship amendment bill without malice, bias and anger. Even if, that means going through it 100 times.
Delving on the theme of the lecture, he said, in today’s day and age it is obvious that Ambedkar’s idea of the Constitution has failed to trickle down. He said people get distracted too easily.
“While building India especially during the writing of the Constitution we were taught to think, unfortunately that is not being done now,” said Gandhi.
Speaking of India’s legacy he said – It is people like Jayprakash Narayan, Lokmanya Tilak and Bhagat Singh who were instrumental in giving shape to the new India that we see.
The three biggest threats India faces are – Terrorism, polarization and fanaticism but every dark cloud has a silver lining, said Gandhi.
Paying tribute to the memory of Osama Talha, Gandhi said, “Osama dedicated himself with passionate intensity and a sense of calling. Similarly this is an evening of free thought and expression. A free press can never be extinguished I say this with a sense of confidence and hope. It’s a great felicity to honour luminaries like Harish Khare and Vinod Dua who combine tenacity, veracity and elegant expression. I still believe that places like Lucknow and Kolkata are some of the most prominent centres of federal intelligence.”
Spelling out his thought on the theme Hum Hind Ki awaam, the grandson of the Mahatma said, “ When the Indian Constitution was being drafted then a Hindi translation committee and a Urdu translation committee was setup for the greater outreach of the contents of the important document across languages. We the People was taken from the US but the Indian Constitution has a terrific lyrical element to it. Not surprisingly it has become a title of many a book and show. From English to Sanskrit and then Urdu the concept of We the People has made its presence felt across languages. In Urdu, we say Hum Hind Ki awaam. Its time we took ownership of the Constitution with Hum Hind Ki Awaam.”
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