#secular india

Choj in Parvati Valley I have been exploring the parvati valley for the last one month and have come across many places but what I love the most is this small village on the way to manikaran from Kasol. Reason to stay:There are many reason I chose to stay in kasol rather than staying in main kasol area. First being that it was less crowded place than kasol. Other reason was to explore this…

If you have been following the news, then you must have seen India in the headlines- protests all over the country for CAA (also known as CAB) and NRC bills, police brutality and deaths in protests. In this article I will provide a synopsis of CAA and NRC bills, talk about why these protests are taking place all over the country, why police brutality is being used and what the government is doing about it. 

Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) also known as Citizen Amendment Bill (CAB), was an act passed in Parliament of India, on December 11th, 2019 (think of Parliament as Congress in other democratic countries). This law grants citizenship of India to illegal immigrants (with me so far not a big deal right?). However, fine print states: if you are citizens of the following countries: Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan and belong to the following religions: Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity, only then you will be granted a citizenship of India. Now: do you see certain faiths missing from the list? (I do, Islam (Muslims), Judaism (Jews), Atheists)).  

The protests for the CAA law, is for many reasons, but I will talk about two main reasons why this law has angered the public: first, this law is unconstitutional because- as a secular democracy, Indian government cannot make laws based on religion. This law for illegal immigrants excludes certain faiths (Islam, Judaism, Atheists to name a few).  So, protests are taking place because the law goes against the constitution, deliberately segregating based on religion, and completely ignores Jews, Muslims and persecutions that have taken place in these countries like- Ahmadia Muslims and Jews in Pakistan, Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh and Muslims who have fled terrorist persecutions during Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Second, this law only grants citizenship, it does not provide an action plan on resources its going to provide to help these illegal immigrants- no funds have been allocated on food, shelter, jobs, etc. And this has outranged the average Indian because the country’s current GDP is the lowest is has been in the past 6 years (EconomicTimes, 2019), the unemployment rate is rising in India (UN study, 2019). India currently ranks at 102/117 countries on the world hunger list, meaning that India is suffering from a serious hunger problem (Global Hunger Index, 2019) and India’s debt has increased by 2.6% in 2019 (IndiaToday, 2019). These are just some facts to show that India as an economy currently does not have the viable funds and resources in place to support it’s own country men; therefore, adding more citizens to the country- through this naturalization process is only going to further strain the economy. And so, protests are taking place to stop this law- not just by the Indian citizens but by state governments as well. They want the federal government to build plans for curbing- hunger, unemployment, suicide problems first. 

On the other hand, we have the bill, National Register of Citizens (NRC). This bill is not a federal law just yet; however, this bill requires that all residence in India will have to prove their citizenship (how do you prove citizenship?show your birth certificate. Thats easy and fair, right?). However, the fine print reads, you must show legal documentation proving- all your grandparents, both your parents and you have been an Indian citizen and paper work is required all the way to 1971. If you fail to provide, not just yours but documents for others, you will be considered illegal. 

Now this has spurred protests all over India and the world because, the average man in India and outside does not have legal documentations, readily available that prove their lineage. It would require them to go through government offices to get these paperwork; time and money spend on proving you are a citizen, because your birth certificate is not enough. This has angered the common man (Now I say- big deal you can stand in line and get paperwork). So, even if the common man in India can get this paperwork after going through a few rounds of the government office: this does not easily apply to the rural, the tribal, the indigenous,  the poor, the homeless, the orphaned, the disabled, etc. they will have no way to prove their identity (now this is NOT their fault); due to various corruptions that has been overlooked by the Indian governments for generations- folks like these have never existed in the system, and even if they do their paperwork is incorrect. So, even if they do go to these government offices to get paperwork, the government employees will not find them in the database, and thus, without having all and correct documents to prove their lineages, they will be considered illegal (its a classical case of which came first: chicken or egg). A pilot for this bill was instituted in the state of Assam, India, it turned out that due to lack of correct paperwork, lack of understanding & knowledge of the ask, immense fraud and corruption around 1.2 million people were considered illegal in the country. This pilot was considered a failure by the people, experts and even the state government. But, the federal government of India is adamant to make this bill a federal law. 

The combination of this NRC bill and CAA law, can be considered discriminatory, here is how: Imagine under the NRC you fail to prove you are citizen of India, so, you are now illegal. However, if you can prove that you are either a Hindu, Christian, Parsi, Buddhist, Sikh or a Jain and belong to the following countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and/or Bangladesh, then under the CAA you can become a citizen of India. So who does this exclude? the poor man who was never in the system (regardless of religion), the Muslim, Jew, atheist- that has fled its country due to religious or other prosecutions, the orphan, and any individual who is of a different religion or cannot prove their lineage with no faults of their own. If this happens, then the question arises where are these people going to go? (ideally- if you are illegal, then you are deported to your country of birth, so, thats where one should go, right? makes sense to me). However, the federal government of India has stated, that they will NOT be deporting these potential individuals, but retain them in a detention center. That is exactly what they did in Assam, where this pilot project was launched.

Folks are outraged on the fact that the government is building and wants to place people in detention centers. The taxpayers money is being/going to be spend on these projects, and they do not want the CAA law and the NRC bill to be implemented. Therefore, more than 50 different universities around the country and world, various human rights institutions and organizations in India and the world, other political parties and simple citizens of India have come on the streets to non-violently protest these acts, bills, and the consequences it will have on the constitution, economy, employment, social system and generations to come in the country. These protests have been going on for almost a week now in India and other foreign countries, but unfortunately in Indian these protests they have been met by police brutality. In a democratic country, its illegal for the police to attack in a non-violent protest; however, this protocol has not been followed by the Indian police and due to the brutalities various people have been injured and 13 have been killed (BBC, 2019). Many suspect its because of the orders provided by the federal government- that control the police; however, it would be hard to judge, without a proper investigation. 

The federal government of India has published a statement- that these bills and laws do not discriminate; however, the Prime Minister of India and the Home Minister of India have done campaign rallies (in these past few days) making hateful remarks against the protestors, Muslims and others (is it just me, or what they say vs. what they write on paper don’t match?). These politicians  have yet to start a dialogue with its citizens and address their concerns, as this is what the protocol mandates in a democracy.

I have completed more than a month on this expedition to explore Himachal and have been to many secluded places that are less known to people. I have stayed in a very small homestay as well as in the lap of luxury. One thing that never changed during this whole time is my attitude towards it. Sometimes, I get distracted and feels lonely while travelling but that’s okay. Now, I can make use of…

When Beatles came to India

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This is from the ruins of the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh. I had been to Rishikesh a couple of times but couldn’t find this place as I never had enough time to look for it unlike this time, first thing I did in Rishikesh was to find out the way to this abandoned ashram which comes under the Rajaji National Park range. This was the very same place…