How exactly is the planned National Register of Citizens like agreeing to enter into an arranged marriage?
That’s what author Chetan Bhagat explained on Twitter on Wednesday as urged the government to shelve the plan and “restore peace and order”.
Bhagat’s tweet was just the latest expression of his disillusionment with the exercise, which has brought lakhs of protestors to the street. Critics of the plan point out that it could become an tool to disenfranchise Indian Muslims if used in tandem with the Citizenship Amendment Act passed last month.
The law adds a religious criterion to India’s citizenship laws. It singles out non-Muslims from three countries – Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – and says they can get on an expedited path to Indian citizenship even if they entered India illegally. Though the Act was described as a way to help persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries, it ignores entirely other communities such as Tamils in Sri Lanka and Rohingyas in Myanmar.
Scrolling through the Twitter timeline of Bhagat, who was until recently counted among the ardent supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, gives a vivid sense of how many Indians have become wary of the manner in which the government has been conducting itself.
The NRC started as an exercise that was limited to the state of Assam, where it was to be implemented as part of an agreement that had been made with Assamese nationalists in 1985 to identify undocumented migrants, mainly from neighbouring Bangladesh. When the final list was published in August, almost two million people were rendered stateless.
But in July 2018, Bhagat had tweeted his support for the NRC, although he expressed reservations about the process.
But after the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed, Bhagat’s scepticism about the NRC became apparent.
The author’s latest tweet has been hailed widely by Twitter users.
Also read
The Final Count: A Scroll.in special on Assam’s National Register of Citizens
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