I don't understand Indian system so probably my comment should be taken with grain of salt. But this shows that supreme court is not independent enough to preserve attack on democracy even when a fundamental tenet of the constitution is attacked, when the attack is coming from the very people who were suppose to safeguard it i.e. current government. So although there is a separation of powers in a democratic system, it looks like similar to what happens in China, where the courts need to listen to government.
In Democracy like in USA "Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate, as stated in the Constitution." So this way president and government of the day can have rules favoring its ideology. In India "The Chief Justice of India and the Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President under clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution." In this the president of India is a titular body working on the directions of prime minister and existing government. So in both the system indeed Judiciary appears to be completely independent but seems government has an influence on it. So in China's communist system and democracy like USA and India its only a difference of semantics but the effect is similar. The government of the day can influence the judiciary.
I used to believe the US Supreme court could be a bulwark against one party control, but the Republicans now admit (McConnel) that they stole a spot from Democrats and have been court packing since they got a republican president. I no longer so naive about courts in the US. We've basically lost judicial independence in only 3 years. 3 years is all it took!
> With NCR everyone will have to prove citizenship
Why?
Why do I need to prove my citizenship at the whim and fancy of government. What is the purpose of this exercise?
This exercise in a small state of Assam cost government coffers around 2000 crores. Add to this the cost citizens had to bear in gathering documentary proofs of their forefathers from land revenue offices, the affidavits, court and legal fees, the time and energy spent and the fear of being thrown into a detention centre - a no mans land.
This is all a ploy to gather power at the Center and the government's reaction to the protests has been testimony to that. Shutting down the Internet, jailing opposition leaders, declaring college students as terrorists and accusing them of sedition for protesting the government has been a constant theme for the last 2 terms for the Center. A Police State is the vision for this current government.
I am from Assam. Your view is a blatant lie. My immediate right and rear neighboring families in my village are of Bihari origin and they have been living for 4 generations. This is just a small example. Thousands of people who were originally from rest of India have been living there. People of Assam are not protesting against the Indian citizens that have come from the rest of India and settled in Assam. Assamese people( & NE people by large) have been fighting against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh for more than 4 decades. The people's view in Assam is, illegal immigrants are illegal regardless of their religions, be it Hindu or Muslim and should be either deported or distributed across all the states of India so that pressure on small NE states doesn't create demographic imbalances. NRC was a mandate of Assam accord which was the culmination of 6 years long protests of the same issue during 1979-1985. Now this new law called Citizenships Amendment Act(CAA) decrees to grant citizenship to the Hindu immigrants detected by NRC exercise and deny to Muslim immigrants. Not only it provides citizenships to illegal Hindu immigrants, it also paves the way for future Hindu & Buddhist immigrants from Bangladesh to these small states which share porous borders with Bangladesh. Fear of indigenous people becoming a minority is not misplaced. Indigenous people of a state named Tripura has already become minority owing to the influx of Bangladeshi immigrants over a period of time.
There has always been anti-bengali sentiment in assam, even under the British. It was one of the reasons Assam was split away from Bengal in the first place. My family is from the Siliguri Corridor, bordering Assam, and there are plenty of people (from various ethnic groups) living there that migrated not only from Bangladesh/East Bengal but other parts of Assam/North East India in order to flee violence.
I am aware of that. I am also aware of the Nellie massacre. I am not sure how far you read Assam's history. The dis-trust of Bengali language imposition originated during the British era who brought many Bengali babus from Bengal for administrative jobs to their newly acquired Assam(most of the current's NE states). The result was, from 1836 to 1873, Bengali became the official state language in Assam. and for a community whose identity is primarily based in the Assamese language, it was a big blow. Even in present time, in Barak valley of Assam, Assamese is not recognized as a state language. Some politically motivated leaders still keep talking about throwing out the Assamese language from the entire state. Only between 1991 and 2011, the share of Assamese speakers in the state fell from 58% to 48%. This is matched by a quick rise in the share of Bengali speakers from 22% to 29% during the same period. Let's be clear, Bengali is the fourth largest speaking language in the world. All the immigrants from Bangladesh are speakers of Bangla. The suspicions of Bangla as an imposing threat to Assamese identity will remain.
Very much true, and there is certainly a lot of historical baggage there. Also, in earlier times, administratively, Assam itself was much larger before many insurgencies caused the state to be split up, and before that, Bengal was much larger (before the British split it up): https://southasiablog.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/how-did-parti...
Most of the protesters that were interviewed had the demand for a better economy, job opportunities for the youth and better infrastructure. It's less about them vs us, but for a better state of affairs for everyone. Because none of that is available and the government is now giving away citizenship to anyone coming in, the economy will take much more strained than before and things will be difficult for everyone.
We didn't arrive at the border today, we were born here, and now we are being asked to stand in line to submit documentary proofs of not only ours but of our parents and grandparents.
Regarding 1 - the government now wants to repeat Assam NRC exercise all over the country. Why? Why do we need to prove our citizenship now all of a sudden?
Regarding 2 - the government handpicked only those countries which have Islam as state religion, and ignored others like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
The largest refugee population in India are Sri Lankan Hindu Tamils living for more than 30 years who were not included. Since including Sri Lanka would force them to include Myanmar which means Rohingyas will have to be accepted too.
The CAA is just a new political tool since Ram temple is now settled.
This is all drama to keep the public distracted from the real issues like a crumbling economy, deteriorating law and order, budget shortfalls in almost all sectors. This has been a recurring play BJP playbook seen throughout the last 6 years.
> Regarding 1 - the government now wants to repeat Assam NRC exercise all over the country. Why? Why do we need to prove our citizenship now all of a sudden?
I don't support pan-India NRC. But Assam NRC was rooted in Assam Agitation that happened in the last century. It was in the direction of SC's decision in 2013 that has prompted the Govt. to conduct NRC in Assam. It's not a BJP invention.
> Regarding 2 - the government handpicked only those countries which have Islam as state religion, and ignored others like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
The Govt. has chosen to address only religious persecution with this bill. India is pretty much entirely open for Nepalese and Bhutanese, so I don't see any reason to include them. India has accepted a large number of refugees from Sri Lanka (Tamils) and China (see Tibetan refugees). Both of them aren't victims of religious persecution. As for Myanmar, I think Government is fairly concerned due to violent acts of Rohingyas. Also, note that excluding Myanmar excludes Hindus from Myanmar too.
