In India 20 million to be made legal citizens
Prof.R. Vaidyanathan IIMB wrote:
On Fri, 5/28/10,
Arizona in the USA is in turmoil due to a piece of legislation passed in the state about illegal immigrants mainly from Mexico and other Latin countries. It says that the cops can ask for papers if they suspect a person to be illegal and also the employers need to check the legal status. The bleeding heart liberals and other assorted types of leftists are up in arms. But the mainstream America wants to go ahead and curb illegal immigration.
But India is different. It carries the 'Athithi Devo Bhava' to the extreme in terms of providing perfume to Kasab.
The facts first. Census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the census Act, 1948 and rules made thereunder. The National Population Register (NPR) is being created under the provision of citizenship Acts and rules. It has been claimed by the Government (home minister in Parliament) that the present census collects information for the later preparation of National Population Register (NPR). To be precise, there is only a Population register under Citizenship rules (2003) and it also mentions about a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC). The difference is obvious and unfortunately mixed up by the government. The census information by definition is confidential in terms of specifics and so there is no way the information collected can be used to verify nationality later.
The citizenship rules direct that 'during the verification process "particulars of such individuals whose citizenship is doubtful shall be entered with appropriate remarks in the population register." The current census enumerator is to fill the query number 11 about nationality by asking the person enumerated. It specifically mentions that "Please record the nationality of the respondent as declared by him/her for each of the person enumerated. Do not get into any argument with the respondent regarding this." [Para 5.21.1 of General Instructions]. This is the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) smuggled into the census structure to facilitate crores of illegal immigrants to be converted into a votebank through citizenship. When the citizenship rules ask for doubtful cases of citizenship to be identified and recorded, the census manual to collect information under the very citizenship rules says "do not doubt the respondent; just record what he says". Incidentally, anyone who has entered India six months prior to census (Kasab is eligible under this category!) and if anyone intends to stay for six months after becomes "usual resident" under the census rules, and they can declare them as Indian citizens. Not only that, the government is planning to issue "National Identity cards" to these people though the cards are meant only for Indian citizens.
In a nutshell, India is going to make more than 20 million (estimated by previous home ministers) illegal immigrants (mostly from Bangladesh) as Indian citizens within a few months. By this subterfuge India will be the only country in the world which not only welcomes illegal immigrants but also confers citizenship and national identity cards to them.
We have seen how the Election Commission has been made ineffective and subservient to the government of the day. We have seen how CBI has been misused to fulfill the whims and fancies of the government of the day.
We have seen how the political parties are eager to get votes under any circumstances and more eager to create vote banks.
We are now seeing the most important authority of our republic, namely, the census commission used for political purposes to confer citizenship on illegal immigrants in a most blatant show of misuse of power.
We have the case of Subba from Assam who became a member of parliament when he is not a citizen of India. We have porous borders and corrupt officials. These two constitute a deadly combination for disaster. But our government by a sleight of hand has decided to subvert the last remaining independent authority, namely, the Census Commission by combining the socalled National Population Register and census count, and by introducing this dangerous clause on citizenship in an innocuous way.
The end result will be millions of illegal immigrants will become citizens of this country and millions more will be interested and encouraged to enter India. Already a section of intelligentsia in Bangladesh believes that India is "Lebensraum" _ adequate room for life or development.
Already we find that large parts of West Bengal, Assam and Bihar and parts of UP are populated by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The correct procedure would be to identify them and deport them at best and at worst give them work permits or guest worker status, and not voting rights or citizenship rights.
But we are going to do something lower than the worst. Provide them citizenship rights. It is high time that nationalist oriented Indians protested this and forced the government to cancel the citizenship tamasha and conduct only a census for now.
Since this will confer voting rights on millions and a huge constituency for some political parties; they will welcome it. But they should realise that the Frankenstein monster we are creating will devour them sooner than later. Sooner than later there will be a clamour for reservation in parliament to "atithi or guest citizens".
A cabinet with Kasab, Headley and Sivarasan will be the most tragic part of the Indian republic.
But our media will still be debating whether sari clad Deepika Padukone was more charming than the Aishwarya dressed in gown in Cannes, and our political leaders will continue to look for avenues to make money by corruption and try to find tax havens to store them.
_______________________________________
Prof.R.Vaidyanathan,IIMB
Prof.R. Vaidyanathan IIMB wrote:
On Fri, 5/28/10,
Arizona in the USA is in turmoil due to a piece of legislation passed in the state about illegal immigrants mainly from Mexico and other Latin countries. It says that the cops can ask for papers if they suspect a person to be illegal and also the employers need to check the legal status. The bleeding heart liberals and other assorted types of leftists are up in arms. But the mainstream America wants to go ahead and curb illegal immigration.
But India is different. It carries the 'Athithi Devo Bhava' to the extreme in terms of providing perfume to Kasab.
The facts first. Census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the census Act, 1948 and rules made thereunder. The National Population Register (NPR) is being created under the provision of citizenship Acts and rules. It has been claimed by the Government (home minister in Parliament) that the present census collects information for the later preparation of National Population Register (NPR). To be precise, there is only a Population register under Citizenship rules (2003) and it also mentions about a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC). The difference is obvious and unfortunately mixed up by the government. The census information by definition is confidential in terms of specifics and so there is no way the information collected can be used to verify nationality later.
The citizenship rules direct that 'during the verification process "particulars of such individuals whose citizenship is doubtful shall be entered with appropriate remarks in the population register." The current census enumerator is to fill the query number 11 about nationality by asking the person enumerated. It specifically mentions that "Please record the nationality of the respondent as declared by him/her for each of the person enumerated. Do not get into any argument with the respondent regarding this." [Para 5.21.1 of General Instructions]. This is the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) smuggled into the census structure to facilitate crores of illegal immigrants to be converted into a votebank through citizenship. When the citizenship rules ask for doubtful cases of citizenship to be identified and recorded, the census manual to collect information under the very citizenship rules says "do not doubt the respondent; just record what he says". Incidentally, anyone who has entered India six months prior to census (Kasab is eligible under this category!) and if anyone intends to stay for six months after becomes "usual resident" under the census rules, and they can declare them as Indian citizens. Not only that, the government is planning to issue "National Identity cards" to these people though the cards are meant only for Indian citizens.
In a nutshell, India is going to make more than 20 million (estimated by previous home ministers) illegal immigrants (mostly from Bangladesh) as Indian citizens within a few months. By this subterfuge India will be the only country in the world which not only welcomes illegal immigrants but also confers citizenship and national identity cards to them.
We have seen how the Election Commission has been made ineffective and subservient to the government of the day. We have seen how CBI has been misused to fulfill the whims and fancies of the government of the day.
We have seen how the political parties are eager to get votes under any circumstances and more eager to create vote banks.
We are now seeing the most important authority of our republic, namely, the census commission used for political purposes to confer citizenship on illegal immigrants in a most blatant show of misuse of power.
We have the case of Subba from Assam who became a member of parliament when he is not a citizen of India. We have porous borders and corrupt officials. These two constitute a deadly combination for disaster. But our government by a sleight of hand has decided to subvert the last remaining independent authority, namely, the Census Commission by combining the socalled National Population Register and census count, and by introducing this dangerous clause on citizenship in an innocuous way.
The end result will be millions of illegal immigrants will become citizens of this country and millions more will be interested and encouraged to enter India. Already a section of intelligentsia in Bangladesh believes that India is "Lebensraum" _ adequate room for life or development.
Already we find that large parts of West Bengal, Assam and Bihar and parts of UP are populated by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The correct procedure would be to identify them and deport them at best and at worst give them work permits or guest worker status, and not voting rights or citizenship rights.
But we are going to do something lower than the worst. Provide them citizenship rights. It is high time that nationalist oriented Indians protested this and forced the government to cancel the citizenship tamasha and conduct only a census for now.
Since this will confer voting rights on millions and a huge constituency for some political parties; they will welcome it. But they should realise that the Frankenstein monster we are creating will devour them sooner than later. Sooner than later there will be a clamour for reservation in parliament to "atithi or guest citizens".
A cabinet with Kasab, Headley and Sivarasan will be the most tragic part of the Indian republic.
But our media will still be debating whether sari clad Deepika Padukone was more charming than the Aishwarya dressed in gown in Cannes, and our political leaders will continue to look for avenues to make money by corruption and try to find tax havens to store them.
_______________________________________
Prof.R.Vaidyanathan,IIMB
