CAB award goes to CM ?

Free Thinker *

First of all, who has instituted this CAB award? Are you sure that this award has been conferred instantly at the airport?

There are many contenders. Is it proper to give away the award in a hurry? We have seen many Award functions pertaining to Oscar Awards, Grammy Awards, etc.; these awards are given on a proper platform in a proper ceremony.

CAB award, just given away on the road, it is not done, as if it is going to be snatched away by someone coming back from Jantar Mantar. When we have many serious contenders, it is not fair to give away the award in such a humble manner.

Normalcy has returned to Manipur. It is a great relief for both public and police. Who has actually clogged the passage of the Bill in the Upper House of Parliament? It is a million-dollar question. To me the award goes to the cloggers. My subsequent question may trouble all of us. Do we really understand the proposed legislation? Have we assessed the possible repercussions of the proposed law in our context?

Perhaps we never try to comprehend it in a proper perspective. The very object of the present Citizenship Amendment Bill is to give citizenship through the naturalization process to migrants minus Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in a quicker way.

Actually, the original law is as old as 1955. And it was enacted to provide for the acquisition and determination of Indian citizenship. Under this, persons belonging to the minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the above-mentioned countries who have come to India without valid documents (or valid documents expired) are considered as illegal migrants.

The new law contemplates to make them eligible for applying for Indian citizenship through naturalization in an easier manner.

Earlier naturalization took 12 years and as per the proposed law the naturalization process will take only 6 years. One may argue that why Muslims are excluded? why only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians? The argument may further continue that it goes against the spirit of the Constitution.

We have nothing to do about the Constitutionality or legality. Let the judiciary decide.

But to me, it is a simple message loud and clear to the people of neighboring countries that if you want to come to India, first you must be a Hindu or Christian or Jain or Buddhist or Sikh or Parsi. I think intelligent people will understand the underlying message.

For those who are already in India for instance in Assam the issue is something different; it is about legalization of those questionable immigrants identified by the NRC. We can’t send them back. In the next CAB Avatar Muslims may also be included. This my own conjecture, I may be utterly wrong.

I was very good in Geography; I got 64 out of 100 in Matric (mobile-phone generation don’t laugh); it was a very respectable score under the Manipur Board. In our Geography class, teacher used to talk about types of volcanoes: Active volcano, Dormant volcano and Extinct volcano; active volcanoes are those which are still emitting hot lava, ashes, gases etc.; dormant are those which can erupt any time; extinct are those which are dead (no eruption in 10,000 years).

According to my reading CAB is now neither active nor extinct. So, it falls under the dormant category, may erupt any time, difficult to predict. A dormant volcano may erupt under an Ordinance.

In Delhi one journo asked a CAB protester- what are the possible consequences in your State if CAB is passed? Protester- foreigners will take over our motherland and we lose our identity.

Journo - how do you define a foreigner? Protester - anybody from outside is a foreigner, they come by air, bus, sumo, trucks etc; another problem is that train is also entering Manipur.

At Jantar Mantar the same journo asked a political leader- Sir, is there any distinction between CAB of 2016 and CAB of 2019? The reply was, “why are you trying to confuse us, our simple demand is CAB should be withdrawn”.

The journo continued - Sir do you think that the Government may invoke Article 123 of the Constitution if they fail to pass this bill in Parliament. Leader - I don’t know about 123, under any circumstances foreigners should not enter our land.

Journo- What a xenophobia! What a sprit!

Finally, I must say that the Cab award goes to CM - CITIZENS OF MANIPUR which includes our Chief Minister.

Most encouraging part of this CAB movement is that it has integrated both hill and valley people; and also unified all the parties irrespective of their ideological or opportunistic allegiance.

Thanks to the BJP led NDA government at the Centre for showering such a blessing in disguise; unity is a very rare thing in this beautiful tiny land. Last but not the least there were minimum injuries and damages during the CAB procedure, thanks to the police for restraint and cooperation.