Dear Hindus, Citizenship Amendment Bill isn't going to help you either.

It is just a small reminder of why CAB isn’t going to work for Hindus as well, contrary to what BJP claims. Of course, the unconstitutionality is totally another matter.

In light of the introduction of Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 (CAB) in parliament, here is a short summary on why it won’t help non-Muslims left out of NRC (and pan-India NRC yet to come) get Indian citizenship and why you are f**ed.

First up, what do you need to provide to get included in the NRC list?

1. Other than dumb luck (the process is known for its arbitrariness and is often riddled with double standards, bureaucratic mishaps and enthusiasm to declare more people as non-Indians), you will need to prove that not only were your parents (possibly grandparents too) born and lived in India but also that you are their actual child.

2. No amount of land records, your birth certificates, DNA tests, ration cards, Aadhar card, Pan Card, etc. will suffice. You will have to prove your ancestry ONLY via birth certificates issued to you, your parents and your grandparents (possibly) by the health department.

Now, many of us are fully aware of how that is going to pan out. Birth certificates were hardly issued to anyone before the 1980s and 1990s. In most parts of Bihar, UP, MP, Rajasthan and most of BJP-voting-Hindi-cow-belt, issuing a birth certificate didn’t pick up the pace well until the early 2000s. Some parts, which lack institutional child delivery mechanisms still don’t receive one.

Now that you are not included in NRC, will CAB will be of help? Well, Not really. (What else had you hoped for?)

To get included in NRC, one has to prove their claim that they are Indian citizens. To get Indian citizenship via CAB, one has to claim and prove that they are a non-muslim from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh fleeing religious persecution.

How can people be made to contradict themselves so blatantly in front of law?

1. Even if you somehow pass this hurdle, you will have to contend with stringent guidelines from two other orders, the Passport Order 1950 and the Foreigners Order 1948. Now anyone with even the slightest idea about those two acts will know that barring few, its almost impossible for the majority to prove strict “religious persecution” conditions laid down under SOPs of these two Acts.
2. Once left out of NRC, you will be put in detention centers (remember jews from Nazi Germany? Yeah, we are pretty much there) and will have to put your case against quasi-judicial Foreign tribunals, notorious for human rights abuse(the word which you hate so much). If you are not lucky, rich or powerful, you will have no access to legal recourse, lawyers, etc. Btw, did I mention that these tribunals have a healthy 50%+ record of passing ex-parte judgments wherein even if you are not present (maybe you didn’t receive the notice from India post; maybe the train got canceled), they will pass judgment without even hearing you.
3. Same as with NRC, how can people who are fleeing religious persecution in their country be expected to carry documentary proofs of their persecution? They are trying to flee the country for the sake of their lives, hiding from their perpetrators, and you expect them to carry documents with them too.

For all its claims of providing a safe haven to non-Muslims facing religious prosecution elsewhere, the Citizenship Bill doesn’t take into account Tamils (facing persecution in Sri Lanka), Rohingyas in Myanmar and Ahmadis in Pakistan. It is just a ploy meant to fan your passions that BJP is working for Hindus being persecuted in Muslim majority countries, a ploy which most Indian voters lap up eagerly.