First, I would like to thank the Post for following up on events in India and publishing detailed articles about the turmoil there, which unfortunately my compatriots who wrote the letters deemed as insignificant.
Your correspondent Bharathan Parasuram says the NRC was only implemented in Assam, and plans to take it nationwide have not been acted upon.
However, on December 24, the Indian Cabinet approved the equivalent of US$550 million for updating the National Population Register (NPR). Home minister Mr Amit Shah has repeatedly pointed out the “chronology” of implementation of CAA and NRC across India, and the NPR is seen as one of the first steps in implementing the NRC.
The NRC exercise in Assam left out around 1.9 million citizens. If you use that scale to estimate the number of people likely to suffer if it is implemented across India, it comes close to 75 million – 75 million people left in the lurch. It is important to understand that CAA plus NRC combined has so many implications for such a large section of the population that it cannot be ignored.
Also, no one is against granting citizenship to those who came to India due to religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh, the countries mentioned in the CAA. That is the most humane thing to do.