Defining thousands as non-citizens will create a new form of precarious citizenship — people with fewer rights, entitlements | The Indian Express

Defining thousands as non-citizens will create a new form of precarious citizenship — people with fewer rights, entitlements | The Indian Express

Written by Sanjib Baruah |Updated: August 30, 2019 10:46:12 am

The writer is professor of political studies, Bard College, New York

Defining thousands as non-citizens will create a new form of precarious citizenship — people with fewer rights, entitlements

India is unlikely to deport to Bangladesh people who fail NRC test. But the millions who will become non-citizens will have fewer rights

In statements made in Dhaka, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar described the process of the identification of citizens and non-citizens in Assam as India’s internal matter. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

The phrase “India’s internal matter” has featured prominently in the country’s diplomacy in recent days. It cropped up repeatedly in the government’s responses to the international fallout of the moves on Jammu and Kashmir: To scrap Article 370and downgrade the state to a Union Territory. The country’s diplomats have pointed to the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore resolution of 1999 to assert India’s jurisdictional competence to take those actions.