Dear Editor,
If “nationalism” gets awarded greater importance than humanity, if strict rule book is desired to be followed without any ifs and buts; then the Assam “infiltrators” should definitely be thrown out!
But our “nationalist” friends should also immediately stop parroting the zealous rhetoric of “international brotherhood” or “Atithi Devo Bhaba” so as to project India’s “principles” of upholding humanitarian liberalism! Also when the sovereign countries named USA, UK or Australia will desire to restrict its visa or entry policy, India should desist from zealously protesting! Certainty the foreign nations don’t hold any “monopoly” of sorts to keep their doors open for all specially the Indians! It seems that the alien nations are duty-bound to keep aloft the flag of “humanity” high above so as to embrace millions of incoming Indians; but we will have to act “nationalist” enough to exclude the “aliens” who are all basically victims of either of the two demons named hunger or religious fundamentalism or both.
Now let the self-declared guardians of nationalism in the form of harbinger of “Good Days” and its rabid supporters call me “anti-nationalist” for not blindly shouting three cheers of the NRC exercise in Assam; but I will definitely speak up for the hapless children of these branded “infiltrators”! What is their “sin”? They have not created these Partition things and other related complexities? Why will they have to suffer for the utter failure and communalism of others and all such technicalities named “citizens” “infiltrators” “passports” and “identity cards”? Oh what a drastic sight of vulnerable babies on laps, little bare-bodied boys and girls on foot running for existence here and there with drastic poverty and/or sword of fundamentalists waiting for its “prey” on one side and “strict enforcement of law” with “morality of nationalism” on the other! God’s own limitless vast sky, yet not a single slice of land underneath it for its own children to pursue an honorable existence! Near about 200 countries to boast of, yet they are “citizens of none”!
And please don’t thwart the “anti-nationalists” by trying to play the “trump card” of Court-monitored exercise! Innumerable criminals have come out of Courts with head held high by getting awarded clean-chit; countless innocents have got convicted without committing any offence. After all it all boils down to how the charge sheet has been framed, “proof” submitted/not submitted/available/not available and of course the witness saga. And who are the “promoters” of NRC! Obviously the “nationalists” from New Delhi and Assam always eager to spew vitriol upon certain religious groups and Bangladeshis! So only a religious optimist can attest the neutrality of the exercise! Therefore sanction of judiciary can never act as the ultimate word. Yet, if man-framed rules and regulations have the final say, then it should at least be ensured that not a single genuine bona-fide citizen gets thrown out — “It is better that 100 guilty persons should escape than one innocent should suffer”.
Yours,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata-114