Sobriety please

Public discourse over the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has reached a crescendo since its publication this Monday. The names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the document, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity. Since then, there has been no let-up; from the ruling BJP with its declaration that “infiltrators will be thrown out” and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the other end who warns of a “civil war and blood bath”. As a beleaguered coordinator of the NRC Prateek Hajela strained to emphasise that not one person among the 40.07 lakh applicants left out of the draft NRC can be labelled an “infiltrator”, the President of the BJP Amit Shah has underlined that his party is committed to “throwing out these suspicious people ( sandhigdh log )”. Not to be outdone, Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of creating conditions for a “civil war”.

Among the many nuances of the exclusion of such a large number of people from the list of citizens, an important one is the linguistic division it creates among Bengali and Assamese-speaking people respectively. Banerjee is fanning the fire because it consolidates her chauvinist and minority plank simultaneously. Such cynicism among top politicians over a process as sensitive as confirming citizenship in a border State with a history of migration is deeply regrettable and dangerous in a country where documentation and data collection has been culturally tenuous. Even an institution with a formidable reputation such as the Election Commission of India grapples with inclusion of every citizen as a voter. If an institution is carrying out the delicate task of determining citizenship, it would be a work in progress. Populating the NRC was a mammoth exercise that involved over 55,000 government employees who were working against odds given the problems with the legacy data that they had for a start.

It is ironic indeed that our leaders are creating chaos in Parliament and outside even as peace reigns in Assam despite 40-lakh people finding themselves stateless. If the Opposition really cares for those excluded from the list, it should ensure that they get a fair shot at establishing their citizenship before the final list comes out. Indeed, it is incumbent on the Centre to make sure that the legal process to establish citizenship is completely adhered to before those left out are classified as aliens. This is a human problem and not one to play petty politics with. The leaders need to learn from the remarkable fortitude that the excluded have displayed until now. The real challenge though will be after the final list is made. That is when the Centre will be confronted with the question of how to deal with the “aliens”. But that’s in the future. For now we need to bring back sobriety into the discourse.

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