Why I don’t support the recent amendments in the Citizenship Act!

I’d begin with what I understand by the recent amendments in the citizenship act of India.
The recent amendment in the citizenship act says that illegal immigrants who are (from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan) + (religious minorities of these three countries) + (claims to come to India to escape religion-based persecution) + (if they have entered India before 31st December 2014) will be granted Indian citizenship.

Illegal Immigrants in the world

Every country in the world is fighting with the problem of illegal immigrants. USA, China, Japan, UK, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and many more. Some countries now have tighter border security and stronger deportation rules and some countries legalize the illegal immigrants and make them the citizen of their countries depending on how they view them. The concept of immigrants has been studied in various countries. Different people perceive immigrants differently. One section of people believes immigrants come with their talents, and experience and add value to the economy. While one section of people view immigrants as a burden to their economy and strongly supports the deportation of illegal immigrants from their country. But what about illegal immigrants in all? Every country is fighting against the problem of illegal immigrants?

Why would one want to leave their home country?
An individual would want to leave their country and live in another country for various reasons like they don’t feel safe in their country, they want a better life, better jobs, attracted by the way of living in the host country, natural disasters, war, and violence also pushes people out of their own country. Every individual has an equal right on the kind of life they desire. But every country has their own laws governing foreign people and their stay in their country. Entering a country and staying there without their permission makes them illegal immigrants of the country.

Why I am against this amendment?
The illegal immigrants in question here are Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who would be granted Indian Citizenship if they have entered India before 31st, December 2014. I have read about the kind of persecution these people face in their home countries. Young girls are kidnapped, they are forcefully married to and converted to Islamic religion – Muslim. The minorities do not have their basic human rights in the countries. They are not safe in their homes, education, no proper employment opportunities, in other words, their life is hell in these countries. Human Development index of these countries on the whole itself is low explaining unhealthy environment (physically, emotionally or even spiritually) for their residents. Well, the number of such news articles on the internet has increased around the year 2019, and more Indian news channels started reporting such events. So I don’t know the real credibility of such news articles, but I do not disagree with the fact that the minorities in these three countries are suffering. The humane in me would welcome such people in my home and give them shelter, help them grow to the extent I can go. But wait, I won’t make them a part of my family.
If they are really suffering in their home country, give them shelter.
All illegal immigrants should be treated equally. Before they are from any religion, they are illegal immigrants. Give them the platform to confirm that they were really suffering in their home country. Give them the shelter they need. Help them grow, train themselves and educate themselves. The moment they claim to live in India illegally on that platform, they can be considered as they are living in India legally. And after that point of time, they can apply for Indian citizenship just like any other foreigner does. And if you feel that 12 years from now is too long to increase your vote bank, decrease the time for naturalization. Make it six years in all. Anyone living legally in India for six years continuously, can apply for Indian citizenship! The constitution gives the freedom to reduce the time for naturalization from 10 years for all. Not for a particular religion.
The insecure me also fears how easy it will be for the spies in India living as Hindus from these countries, and given that they too would be granted Indian Citizenship, they could apply for government jobs too! And I can only imagine the vulnerability we’d be in.
I have one more question,, what about the minorities now and yet living in these three countries? Many human rights organizations have intervened, but there’s no change. Will we be thinking about them too? How many such people will you take care of? And for how long? If one country isn’t doing their job right, does that mean we change the way our country works? Does that mean we let them not do their job?

Poverty?

We were asked to write a piece telling what does poverty mean to us. I don’t know what would I write for that assignment, but that question immediately makes me write this piece.
While commuting from one place to another in the city, we come across many homeless. Some make themselves a tent of tarpaulin or similar fabrics available, some just live on the road. They living on the footpath is harmful to them and they also encroach the footpath meant for walking and bicycles. I come across one such group of 5-7 people living on the footpath on FC Road every day while walking to and fro college. They live on the smart footpath, that has been recently converted in to under the smart cities mission, sleep there, and do everything. I once even saw a teenage couple in the group making love on the footpath. One day curious about what brings them here, I talk to the group. I asked them a few questions like where did they come from to Pune, where do they buy the articles they sell, what do they for food, where do they go for answering the nature’s call and a lot more. That group came to Pune from a village near Solapur. They are living on the footpath because, obviously, they do not have any other place to live. One small girl said, “my other cousin lives on another road like this”. When I asked them about the articles they had which they sell living on the road, the guy said: “I go to Delhi to buy these, and we sell them here”. I clearly didn’t know whether to believe what he said or not. Because with Mumbai being nearer, or should I say, with the local wholesale market, why would someone travel all the way to Delhi to buy these articles which are available here in local areas! I reason with myself that the goods would be cheaper in Delhi, and a group of them would be going together. I continued the conversation with a feeling that I may or may not get the right answers. They claimed to live there for two-three months now. They earn by selling the articles and the kids begging. They buy the food from the shops around and sometimes some people walking on the road give them some food too. They use public toilets a few meters away to cleanse themselves. Though I have seen them bathing their kids on the footpath itself. The encroachment department of the city hasn’t seemed to have seen them live on the footpath that they haven’t been asked to clear the space or got them relocated! All the smartness of the city was gone the moment this group of homeless could live on the roads.

I will come to my question now, what does poverty mean to me?
Poverty to me doesn’t mean a lack of access to basic necessities an infrastructure, it is the lack of will power to always keep on moving to a better place. It has been three months that the group of people have come to Pune, and are selling articles, begging on the road and living on the road. They don’t need to move to a place with a roof because that would come with a cost and responsibility. Here, they don’t have to pay rent to anyone, they don’t have to buy raw food to cook, they don’t need to care about water, electricity nothing. Life is easy for them that way. I had offered a job to the guy in that group who didn’t even know to speak properly, of INR 9000 per month along with good living conditions and food. His work would be working in a cello tape factory, carrying the jumbo rolls from the store to the machines. He refused! saying that I don’t have to work hard here, I don’t want to work in the factory. The group if wanted to keep moving to a better place, would have found a place to live at least in one of the slum pockets in the city, would have found a job or would have started selling more types of articles, and could have done what not.

Before you would complain that the government isn’t doing anything for the homeless, you cannot expect the government to provide the homeless with everything. Government’s role shouldn’t be of a typical Indian parent that would provide everything for their children and decide everything for them, the government’s role should be of Lord Krishna of showing the way to move forward.