The spectre of foreignness | The Indian Express

The spectre of foreignness | The Indian Express

Written by Harsh Mander |Updated: June 25, 2019 1:40:30 am

Mander is a human rights worker and writer

The spectre of foreignness

Extending the concept of foreigners tribunals from Assam to rest of India will result in an upheaval that will stir memories of Partition.

At the core of the systemic injustice of the NRC process is the reversal of the burden of proof. For most crimes, a person is innocent until the state prosecution is able to prove him guilty.

A tersely worded order of the Union Home Ministry, less than two pages long, carries the potential to alter India forever, to crush the fundamental rights of millions of the country’s most vulnerable people, and to subvert the edifice of India’s constitutional framework and to change the founding principles of the republic. This order, published in the Gazette of June 4, authorises any state government, Union Territory or district magistrate to establish foreigners’ tribunals in any part of the country. Up to now, this power was restricted to the Union government and applied exclusively to Assam.