CAA, NPR and NRC: Confusion and connection explained

We, the people of India" mean citizens of India. This citizen of India is defined, identified, verified and distinguished from infiltrators under a set of three laws: the Citizenship Act of 1955 (amended many times; the latest version emerged in the recent Winter Session of Parliament), the Foreigners Act of 1946 and the Passport Act of 1920.

Every non-cit

izen living in India is an infiltrator, if she is not a tourist or diplomat, because India doesn't have a law to define a refugee. Tibetans, Sri Lankan Tamils and some other named groups of foreigners are refugees as the government of the day accorded them that statusThe Foreigners Act makes it a duty of the government to expel all infiltrators or illegal immigrants out of India. Since there is no law, there is no accurate estimate of how many illegal immigrants are living in India. Estimating the number of illegal immigrants is like guessing the amount of black money in circulation in the Indian economy -- the money exists, but it is out of official calculation and hence subject to speculation.

The current story began with the Narendra Modi government pushing the Citizenship Amendment Bill (now an Act) in Parliament, which passed it on December 12. During the discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the government would bring a nationwide NRC (National Register of Citizens).

The Assam experience has been bad with reports about a large number of bonafide citizens having been left out of the NRC, and there is still no clarity about how many illegal immigrants were identified in the exercise, which essentially asked every resident to prove her Indian citizenship.