With the evolution of the disputed Citizenship Amendment Bill into the Citizenship Amendment Act, the tide of protests amplified to the whole of India. The amendment legalizes the status of refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, to the status of the Citizens of India. This is regarded, in the point of view of the Government of India as a huge human rights initiative, which will help to provide basic amenities to the hugely marginalized population of refugees who fled their own countries due to religious persecution. However, the people have sensed a different agenda which could be used to marginalize a specific section of India- Muslims.
There are scenes of violent protests, people burning public transport, thrashing ambulances, beating police, using bombs, etc. First, it started in the North East region, specifically Assam and then the fire engulfed the capital, New Delhi and now the whole of India seems to be on streets. Students from major universities swarmed on the roads demanding the withdrawal of CAA. However, the violent protests have destroyed the moral ground and the public support it could have garnered, had it gone non-violent. And destroying buses, while chanting the name 'Gandhi', have personally irked many intellectuals. Despite its ugly flaws, the protest is not meaningless. There are many layers, which sometimes seems reality and sometimes mere idea, albeit a dangerous one.
The protest in North East, specifically in Assam is not on the lines of Hindu and Muslim narrative. They are just scared, of many waves of beings coming in their area, disturbing their culture and the way of living, as happened in 1971, after the lakhs of refugees from Bangladesh were allowed to live in their area. A tribe called Tripuri has almost vanished, and now the Chief Minister of Tripura itself is a Bengali of Bangladesh origin. The same is happening in all of the North East and in spite of the Government's assurance that those areas will remain safe, through the 6th Schedule of the Constitution and the Inner Line Permit, it will not be enough.
In New Delhi and the whole of India, the protest is against the 'idea' of CAA+NRC. NRC is already in process in Assam and the people failing in it are going to be played by different rules and those rules are not even clear by the Government's standards. Keeping decades ago IDs and certificates are not possible for many and seeing that about 85% of India's area is prone to one or multiple hazards, it gets even more difficult to present it to the authorities. Both the laws with each other can prove detrimental to a specific section of India- Muslims. Say, for example, there are 2 people- Ravi and Abid. Both of them fail to give their credentials to the NRC and are now put in the place with all other disqualified citizens. Now Ravi can claim that he is a Hindu refugee from Bangladesh, but Abid has no such tool of the rule. So through CAA, Ravi will be incorporated into India through the back door and Abid will remain in suspicion of his future. This is why students are right in protesting and police are right in using their batons upon those who in the guise of protest spreading mischief in the country.
If this was not enough, few religious lords and political leaders are flaming the fire on the lines of Hindu Muslim. Numerous videos are going online of Maulvis inciting people to get on streets and show them the might, while few political leaders have suggested kicking out the illegal immigrants. Their tongue in cheek statements speaks a lot of violence.
The government should clear the air regarding both the laws in public, via debates and conferences with the students. This government has come with a lot of public support which makes it even more important to come forward to tell what is what and what is not.
