Indian Citizenship for Bangladeshi Hindu Refugees?

 

Indian Citizenship for Bangladeshi Hindu Refugees?

 Shrikant G. Talageri

 

How long does it take for a citizen of another country to get citizenship in India?

According to google, when asked the question "how many years of residence in India qualify for citizenship?":

"Foreigners may become Indian citizens by naturalisation after residing in the country for at least 12 years and renouncing any previous nationalities". Another source says the time period is 11 years.

 

Today, Hindus are again being massacred in Bangladesh, after the ignominious expulsion of Sheikh Hasina. If any Bangladeshi today manages to escape from Bangladesh alive and enters as a refugee into India and continues to remain here and this fact of his residence here is noted in official records, he will be able to get citizenship sometime in 2036 at the earliest regardless of whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim or the follower of any other religion, both as per pre-2014 laws and post-2014 ones.

 

In 2014, the BJP brought in a C.A.A. (Citizenship Amendment Act) to "fast-track" the citizenship of Hindu-etc. (i.e. non-Muslim) refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan entering India due to persecution in those countries. The Act was not passed in 2014. It was later passed on December 11 2019. As per this bill (both as conceived in 2014 and amended in 2019), a Bangladeshi Hindu who enters India today in 2024 as a refugee will still not be eligible for citizenship until 2035 or 2036, since the waiting period has been reduced from 11 or 12 years to 5 years only for those who had already entered India before 31 December 2014! Even without this amendment, it would have taken exactly the same period (of 11 or 12 years) for anyone (Hindu, Muslim, or anything else) entering India after 2014 to acquire Indian citizenship.

It may be noted that the BJP was in full control of its decisions for 10 years from 2014 to 2024. It was not dependent on the assent of any ally (supporting party), and certainly the sweeping way in which the BJP government has been taking controversial decisions from 2014 onwards (starting with demonetization and going on to large-scale attacks on opposition parties using state weapons like the ED, CBI and IT department to split parties and engineer defections and even to decide which faction of any split opposition party should retain its original name and electoral symbol) does not indicate that it was ever prevented from doing what it really wanted to do out of fear of lok-laaj or criticism. Clearly it never wanted to provide any support to Hindu refugees being persecuted in foreign countries.

 

Today the BJP has the excuse that it is prevented from doing things for Hindus because of pressure from secular allies. It did not have that excuse for 10 years from 2014-2024, and did not even feel the need to make a pretence of wanting to do anything for Hindus during those 10 years. Now that it has that excuse once more (as it did before 2014), it is back to its pre-2014 games of pretending to be wanting to do things for Hindus, secure in the knowledge that failure to be able to do so is already automatically excused!! And, of course coming up with lame-duck measures (like the C.A.A.) even on the issues on which they now want to pretend to be keen to do something. So we see (or so I am told) a lame-duck attempt to show that they want to do something about the waqf issue which has been brought to the attention of literate Hindus after Anand Ranganathan's recent book, by introducing (or pretending to want to introduce) half-baked and ineffective amendments to the waqf laws.

 

Is the BJP solely responsible for turning Hindu issues into a sick joke? It must be remembered that all its treacheries and backstabbing of Hindus from 2014-2024 were fully defended, supported, whitewashed and justified by millions of bhakts − ranging from Hindu intellectuals to common Hindu voters − who thought (or rather pretended to think) that a 1000-year Reich of uncontrolled BJP rule had commenced in 2014 and so there was plenty of time (forever, in fact) and no hurry to do all these "Hindu" things which could be done at some time in future if at all. They egged the BJP on, by word, gesture and action, to continue in its treacheries and backstabbing with assurances that they were on the right track.

 

Today, a section of Hindu intellectuals has started an online petition asking that something be done about the persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh. And what is that "something" that the petition wants done? Here in the words of the petition itself"

"We, the undersigned, urge the Indian Parliament to

Pass a unanimous resolution in recognition of the ongoing violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, and to condemn this wave of communal violence. 

Work with international bodies, such as the United Nations, to pressure the Bangladeshi authorities to take concrete steps to protect their Hindu minority and hold perpetrators accountable (https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152811).  

Advocate for providing humanitarian assistance and asylum options for Hindus fleeing persecution in Bangladesh. 

It is imperative that we act now to prevent further atrocities and support the fundamental human rights of the Hindu community in Bangladesh. Your support can make a significant difference in mobilizing international action and ensuring that these vulnerable populations receive the protection they need."

This petition still does not demand that Hindus persecuted in any country (whether Bangladesh in the present circumstances or any other) be given full rights to get asylum and citizenship in India in the same manner as any Jew persecuted in any other country (or perhaps even without any prerequisite of persecution) has the right to get asylum and citizenship in Israel.

And it wants the Indian Parliament to "advocate" (Muslim and Christian countries?) to provide "asylum options" for these fleeing Hindus!

 

The Kashmiri Hindus who fled Kashmir during and after the late eighties and the Meitei Hindus who have been laid siege in Manipur never had the happy circumstance of such online petitions in their favor (of course there was no "online" in the 1900s, but there were no offline petitions either)! Perhaps the Kashmiri Hindus would still have been living in Kashmir today in full freedom and happiness and in full possession of their lands and homes, and the Meitei Hindus would also have acquired ST status like other non-Hindu inhabitants of Manipur, if Hindu intellectuals all over India had only taken the trouble to bring such petitions to urge the Indian Parliament and the United Nations to give justice to them!

If the Indian Parliament (i.e. the Secularists and leftists in that august body) and the United Nations (i.e. the Muslim and Christian countries) cold-shoulder this present petition (already those in Parliament demanding that Rohingyas be given Indian citizenship are either silent or vocal against allowing Bangladeshi Hindus into India, and the western media is busy justifying the massacres of Hindus in Bangladesh as "revenge" for Hindu atrocities!), then of course they (i.e. the non-BJP members of Parliament, and the United Nations) will be responsible for the fate of the Bangladeshi Hindus. The BJP and Hindu intellectuals will have done their best and will have no responsibility in the matter!!

Appropriately it was Marx (or at least I think it was) who wrote "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce". The cycle of tragedies, i.e. of Islamic invasions, Islamic rule and Partition ended in 1947. Now there are only farces being re-enacted all over India. Again and again.