Citizenship Amendment Act: From the eyes of an atheist

Imagine a world where you get to enter Cafe Coffee Day only if you are a fan of Marvel comics. If you were into the Disney movies, you are welcome, even fondness for Japanese anime and K-Pop would do, but follow DC comics and you are not welcome. That is something on the lines of the recent Citizenship Amendment Act the Indian government just passed in both the houses of the Indian parliament.

What it says, what it means...

The Act says that certain refugees on the Indian soil belonging to certain beliefs and hailing from specific locations are welcome as citizens in the Indian republic but others are not. The Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and Parsis specifically from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are welcome in India but not the same communities from Sri Lanka, Myanmar or China, and Muslims from absolutely nowhere.

It is the first time when the Indian Parliamentarians openly told the world that you must believe in certain stories before you dream of becoming a member of our exclusive club. Prior to that, those who believed in this stupidity couldn’t dare vocalize their bigotry and had no choice but to align themselves to the secular Indian beliefs of the founding forefathers of this nation.

Probably, the bigots were not as organized. But now, the hell they are! They have power, resources, popular support and a whole lot of money to fake it even when they don’t.

Why to oppose CAA (even without NRC)?

I write this because I feel that we have forgotten why the architects of this nation chose to be blind to the god fandoms the members of the national club subscribed to while writing the constitution. Of course, we could imagine moral reasons and the collective investment of all communities in earning the freedom but I see a reason greater than all of these that our founding forefathers as well as any human being who is friends with a person with a different set of beliefs would.

It is that beliefs and ideas are not physical, but people are. A human can switch between favorites millions of times. They don’t stick. State just can’t keep track of all the stories the subjects are believing in, it just takes too much time and energy and can be grossly counterproductive as we see through the numerous ongoing protests all around the country.

A DC fan can read a few Marvel comics, proclaim to be a Marvel fan, enter Cafe Coffee Day and then switch back to DC. This is the problem with including ideas while defining people. Ideas are not physical enough to stick with people. Note that this is not really applicable to the new Act but I’m talking about the problem in using religion while defining people.

So we must make people understand and, if we have some spare time, understand ourselves that people take up and shed ideas all the time. People can give up Islam, take up citizenship, and take back Islam. Is the state supposed to run after people making sure they continue to follow Captain America and not Wonder Woman?

The larger picture...

But this is not really a workaround this bigotry as this won’t be the end of it.

First, THEY’re not welcome if THEY believe in Allah, then you outlaw women wearing skirts, then your surname decides your profession, and then Andrew Garfield becomes better spider-man than Tobey Maguire.

Conflicts after conflicts pop out of our stinking asses to keep ourselves busy over nothing.

But our leaders do it anyway. Why is that? Why are these stories so important for our leaders? Why are whole countries mad over a religion and punish those who don’t align with the belief system?

Because it’s all a way to control the masses!

It shows people their place, keeps them busy with the ‘nothings’.

Just think about it, the god you want to believe in is your personal choice, what has tradition, customs and the state have anything to do with it? Why does the state care? You want to give citizenship, just see if the individual refugee is putting up a valid case, it doesn’t matter if the person is a Hindu, a Muslim or some freak who loves Batman and Robin. Just look into his case and decide!

Associating religion with state issues is downright impractical, and grossly moronic. It’s just a futile exercise to control masses and a cunning toy to keep us off the important debates.