India’s founding values are threatened by sinister new forms of oppression – By Madhav Khosla
In protests that have spread across the world’s largest democracy, Indians of all stripes have taken to the streets. Two weeks ago, the government amended the citizenship law to speed up applications for refugees from surrounding countries who are Hindu, Christian, Parsi, Jain or Buddhist – but not Muslim. The law coincides with an attempt to create a new list of India’s citizens, a task whose precise mechanism has evolved in recent days.
Regardless of the details, it will be a Kafkaesque exercise during which poor people with few official documents will have to prove their citizenship. If they happen to be Muslim, the citizenship law means the consequences they face will be different. Detention centres mushrooming across India reveal what those might be.
The pan-Indian nature of the outcry is striking. India has long been home to disobedience, but the scale and reach of the present discontent is rare. Though the protests have been painted as a conspiracy limited to Muslim and elite forces, elements that have come together to suppress the real India, there seems to be genuine and diverse opposition to the plainly exclusionary citizenship law. …The present discontent has highlighted the contrast between the ideals on which the nation was formed and the direction in which it is quickly heading.…
SEE ALSO:
- CAA protests mark collective rejection of toxic politics and policies that dominate public life – By Harsh Mander (Dec 25, 2019, Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/caa-protests-citizenship-law-jamia-amu-6183346/ - Why India’s Students Are Angry and Its Muslims Are Worried – By Archana Chaudhary and Iain Marlow (Dec 19, 2019, Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-indias-students-are-angry-andits-muslims-are-worried/2019/12/18/17617390-215d-11ea-b034-de7dc2b5199b_story.html - A law that offers citizenship only to non-Muslims sidesteps the real issues for political mileage – By Madhav Godbole (Dec 30, 2019, Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/caa-protests-nrc-citizenship-amendment-act-right-question-wrong-answer-6190568/ - It’s time to relearn idealism from students – By Natasha Badhwar (Dec 18, 2019, Live Mint)
https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/it-s-time-to-relearn-idealism-from-students-11576676260421.html
