Citizenship rights, human rights
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Citizenship, civil rights and human rights are sacred. They cannot be subject to the whims and fancies of governments. This inviolability is the core of the judgments given by two high courts in the past few days. One is the temporary relief given by the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court to Rakshanda Rashid, a 63-year-old woman. She was deported to Pakistan by the Union government. A Pakistani citizen, she has been living in Jammu with her husband and two children for the past 38 years. However, she has a long-term visa in India. Moreover, she had applied for Indian citizenship in 1996; the government did not take any action on that application. When India expelled Pakistani citizens following the Pahalgam terror attack, Rakshanda was among them. Now, the court has ordered the Union Home Secretary to bring her back within 10 days. Justice Rahul Bharti, who said that the legality of their deportation needs to be examined, expressed concern about the way an ailing elderly woman was sent to a place where there was no one to take care of her. While adjudication can be made in due course, the court cited the fact that human rights are the most sacred aspect of life as the basis for its order to grant immediate relief to Rakshand.
The Supreme Court's other order temporarily blocking the deportation of Zainab Bibi is also based on humanity and human rights. Zainab Bibi'sfamily has been living in Assam for generations. Moreover, she submitted all the necessary documents to prove her citizenship. Yet, the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam and later the Guwahati High Court declared her a foreigner and ordered her to be deported. It is this deportation that Justices K.V. Viswanathan and N. Kotishwar Singh have ordered to stay till the hearing in August. There are many more such victims who are not given even the basic humanitarian considerations they are entitled to legally. The Supreme Court had criticized the practice of treating people as foreigners in Assam without any proof in another case last year. The court also pointed out that doubt can never be a substitute for legal evidence. However, the racism inherent in the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens has started to be implemented at many levels, resulting in helpless victims and inhumane state actions. Various BJP governments have taken the initiative to stamp as foreigners and expel those who are entitled to the protection of citizenship.
In addition to that, the Election Commission also is now setting out to determine citizenship, which is not within the jurisdiction of the commission, in the name of the electoral roll. It beginning is in Bihar, where elections are about to be held. The opposition parties are strongly opposing the Election Commission's move to conduct a stringent re-examination (Special Intensive Revision) to check citizenship documents by going door to door under the pretext of updating the electoral roll. It is not the call of the Election Commission to determine citizenship, other than preparing the voter list. This is not only illegal but also impractical. This exercise will lead to the exclusion of tens of thousands of citizens from the electoral rolls who cannot produce their documents on time. The Commission has decided that 2003 is the base year for documents. All of those who became voters after that cut-off year will have to produce various forms of citizenship documents - from birth certificates to NRC. Even now, 75 per cent of Biharis do not have birth certificates. They will be forced to refuse to vote rather than prove their citizenship by organizing their birth certificates and parents' documents. This anti-people move is questionable on many levels. It will only serve to make the elections a mockery by denying citizenship. Whether it is the Election Commission or the authorities in the border states, they are supposed to serve the people. Meddling with the civil rights granted by the Constitution is dangerous for the country. It will be a fall from true democracy, where the citizens decide the authorities, to a state of fascism where the authorities decide the citizens. India does not deserve that.
