According to an earlier amendment to the 1955 Citizenship Act, adopted during the earlier BJP govt of 1999-04, the Modi govt has issued orders to prepare a National Population Register (NPR) from 1st April to 30th September 2020, and a new National Register of Citizenship (NRC) based on the CAA. Under the NPR survey all citizens shall be asked to give their details as well as of the parents including papers of land/houses owned by them. Those who do not have such papers will be called “Doubtful Citizens” (DCs). Not only majority of the Muslims, but the scheduled castes (Dalits) and scheduled tribes (Adivasis) along with other backward sections are landless and houseless, illiterate, who migrate to new areas of work frequently. They have very few records and most of accepted records like passports, voter ids etc have been held to be ineligible for proof of citizenship. It is estimated that 200 million may become DCs when the NPR is made. They will be given 3 months time to prove their citizenship before the Foreigners’ Tribunals. In this almost all will fail, as happened recently in Assam, where an NRC was prepared.

Then the CAA will ensure that Muslims noted as DCs will lose citizenship. The others, the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Budhists, Parsis and Christians, can get citizenship based on CAA, if they prove they migrated from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh due to religious persecution, which 99% of them cannot prove. So, in this first phase of the communal, ethnic cleansing nearly 200 million people, half of them Muslims will become stateless. They will be thrown into Detention Camps being constructed all over India. This is in keeping with the RSS dream of building India as a “Hindu Rashtra (Nation)”. It is a horrific development under the rule of the fascist Modi!

Recognizing this danger, soon after CAA was enacted, students revolted in many universities. Soon, to give it a religious slant, the students of muslim run universities like Jamia Millia islamia University In Delhi and AMU in Aligarh, UP, were brutally attacked by the police forces which have already been subject to penetration by RSS indoctrination. Soon students of almost all universities and other institutions all over the country came out in revolt, the Dalits and Adivasis started coming out. All secular democratic forces with many of the non-BJP parties also came out broadening the movement.

 

The women of Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, launched an indefinite peaceful massive sit-in from 17th December calling for scrapping CAA/NPR/NRC. It soon became a symbol of resistance, with more  “Shaheen Baghs” coming up all over India. As the peaceful people’s movement started becoming broader and BJP lost elections in Jharkhand and Delhi state assemblies, where Modi campaigned based on CAA and majoritarian Hindutva (2), heavily armed RSS goons along with the lumpen forces they mobilized, organized a pogrom in the northeast of the capital city, Delhi, with the police and administration remaining  mute spectator as the Muslims were targeted, torturing, killing many, attacking women, destroying thousands of houses and shops, burning or looting their property, forcing thousands to flee to relief camps. Even after a week the police, the central and state governments and the judiciary  have not shown the necessary concern to help them. The Modi government is trying to target Muslims and to create an atmosphere of state terror and fear to suppress the people’s resistance and to impose the CAA/NPR/NRC at any cost.  The CPI(ML) Red Star along with numerous other forces actively involved in the movement are mobilizing the masses to boycott the NPR. If the NPR is not blocked a humanitarian tragedy of colossal magnitude may be conducted under the rule guided by the fascist RSS,
Already the Indian Diaspora around the world have come out against this communal, ethnic cleansing under the pretext of NPR/NRC. Many governments across the world and democratic forces have expressed concern. The UN Commissioner for Human Affairs is trying to intervene in the Supreme Court hearing on this question. But the Modi government is arrogantly trying to deflect international public opinion claiming it is India’s internal question!

In this grave situation, the ICOR strongly condemns this large scale communal, ethnic cleansing by the Modi government leading to tens of millions of people including large number of religious minorities, mainly Muslims, and oppressed people becoming deprived of citizenship and thrown to Detentions Camps. ICOR supports the ongoing people’s resistance against it and calls upon all its constituent organizations to extend support to the people of India at this critical juncture.

The joint call of ILPS and ICOR for building an „international anti-imperialist and antifascist united front“ is more than ever necessary. In these times of deep crisis of the capitalist world communist, democratic and antifascist forces have to resist the rightward development of many governments.

Let us unite, workers and oppressed peoples!

 

(1) CAA – Citizen Amendment Act
 NPR – National Population Register
 NRC – National Register of Citizenship

(2) Concept for orientating India according to Hindu rules, also called Hindu-nationalism (cf. Wikipedia)

 
Signatories (as of 18 March 2020, further signatories possible):
1. ORC   Organisation Révolutionnaire du Congo (Revolutionary Organization of Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo
2. MMLPL   Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line
3. CPSA (ML)   Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)
4. PPDS   Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia
5. CPB   Communist Party of Bangladesh
6. CPI (ML) Red Star   Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star
7. Ranjbaran   Hezb-e Ranjbaran-e Iran (Proletarian Party of Iran)
8. NCP (Mashal)   Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)
9. БКП   Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)
10. PR-ByH   Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bosnia and Herzegovina
11. MLPD   Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)
12. UCLyon   Unité Communiste Lyon (Communist United Lyon), France
13. UPML   Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France
14. BP (NK-T)   Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))
15. KOL   Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)
16. MIKSZ   Magyar Ifjúság Közösségi Szervezete (Organisation of Hungarian Youth Community), Hungary
17. RM   Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands
18. MLGS   Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)
19. KSC-CSSP   Komunisticka Strana Cheskoslovenska – Cheskoslovenska Strana Prace (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia – Czechoslovakian Workers Party), Czech Republic
20. MLKP   Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)
21. KSRD   Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine
22. MLP   Marksistsko-Leninskaja Platforma (Marxist-Leninist Platform), Russia
23. PCC-M   Partido Comunista de Colombia – Maoista (Communist Party of Colombia - Maoist)
24. NPCH (ML)   Nouveau Parti Communiste Haϊtien (Marxiste-Léniniste) (New Communist Party of Haiti (Marxist-Leninist))
25. PCP (independiente)   Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan  Communist Party (independent))
26. PC (ML)   Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic
27. PCR-U   Partido Comunista Revolucionario del Uruguay (Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay)
28. CPA (M-L) Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)