Dhaka worried as India ratifies Citizenship Amendment Act

Secularism was one of the four original fundamental principles of the Constitution of Bangladesh just after the nation was founded with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the head of the new nation. But it was removed from the Constitution in 1977 by Ziaur Rahman, who replaced it with a statement of “absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah” and he declared Islam as the state religion.

Over 90 per cent of Bangladeshis are Muslims. There are eight per cent Hindus and Buddhists, Christians and others make up the rest. The removal of secularism from the Constitution was described by Bangladesh’s Hindu intellectuals as a “betrayal of Bengali nationalism”. The same Bangladesh now describes India’s Citizenship Bill as the “end of India’s pluralistic and secular image”.

Bangladesh’s prestigious English daily, The Daily Star, in its editorial, writes, “India’s soul, we dare say, is being jaundiced. That’s a pity and we say it from our own experience when the fundamental tenet of the nation—secularism—was deleted from the Constitution of Bangladesh.

“We say this out of a feeling of apprehension and a sense of despondency as well. Because India was cited, not only by Bangladesh but also the world, as an example of a pluralistic, inclusive nation with a syncretic culture and eclectic society. What we see now is the retrogression of a nation which once exemplified ‘unity in diversity’ to an exclusive Hindu state where only one religion will prevail.

That, we regrettably say will strike the very soul of India. And the consequence of this policy will certainly reach its neighbouring countries too - to which India may not remain impervious.”

Bangladeshi leaders fear that both the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are going to prove a double trouble for Bangladesh as its neighbouring country has now chosen the path of a “Hindu Rashtra” that has struck at the very fundamental principles and ethos on which the country’s founding fathers had established it. Now the BJP government will validate communal politics in India, is the widespread fear.

“The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 protects only the rights of the non –Muslims irregular immigrants from the neighbouring Muslim majority countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The BJP-led government has sought to justify singling out the non-Muslims migrants by claiming that the proposed law will give sanctuary to religious minorities fleeing persecution in neighbouring countries.

“The Indian government’s claim that the citizenship law aims to protect religious minorities rings hollow by excluding Ahamadiyas from Pakistan and Rohingyas from Myanmar,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, director, South Asia of Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch feels that the Bill uses the language of refuge and sanctuary, but discriminates on religious grounds in violation of international laws.

“The Bill reflects many other policies promoted by the BJP government that favour majority Hindus at the expense of Muslims such as the failure to properly prosecute party supporters implicated in attacks on minorities.

“The Indian government has also deported Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar despite the risk to their lives and security. The BJP has also demonised Muslim immigrants and asylum seekers including calling them ‘infiltrators’ to gain electoral support,” added Ganguly.

Nazarul Islam, a scholar, feels that India has moved towards a newly cherished system of majoritarian rule and when students of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) voiced their dissent over the appointment of a Muslim as a faculty teacher in the Sanskrit department, it ripped apart India’s claimed adherence to secularism.

“As a nation, Indians appear to be rabidly sinking into a cesspool of rabid differences, discrimination and diabolical political design. Unfortunately, the ethnically charged people still constitute a large chunk of the society and have the political and religious wherewithal with them to influence the whole system and bend universal perceptions of equality and egalitarianism to their brand of selective paradigms,” said Nazarul Islam.

Mohammed Zaman, a resettlement specialist and an advisory professor at the National Research Centre for Resettlement (NRCR) in Hohl University, Nanjing, China, feels that NRC has left many worried across the borders in both India and Bangladesh. At risk are nearly 20 lakh people, including an estimated 12 lakh Hindus who have been left out of the NRC list in Assam.

“The NRC outcome has plunged Assam into chaos and it did not satisfy anyone either in Assam or India. It targeted the minorities living in poverty - mostly Bengali speaking Muslims and Hindus in Assam who are easily stereotyped as ‘Bangladeshis’.

The impact of NRC and CAA are being felt in Bangladesh. The domestic ‘political intrigues’ of the BJP and the possibilities of a pan-India NRC in future as Amit Shah has been stressing may lead to a Rohingya-like migration to Bangladesh.

In fact, the delisted Bengalis have started assembling at the borders to enter Bangladesh as they have become “stateless” in India. The exercise, meant to exclude Bangladeshis will see many genuine Indians citizens left out,” feels Mohammed Zaman.

NRC has been a worry for Bangladesh though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured Sheikh Hasina that Dhaka should not have any cause for concern. But the fact that if NRC is extended to all parts of India, as Amit Shah has been threatening, will definitely impact Indo-Bangladesh relations. Dhaka has its eyes across the border to keep track of the situation.