Harsh Mander: This is the make or break moment for India and its people

The contentious Citizen Amendment Bill of 2019mdasha possible precursor to a nationwide implementation of the National Registrar of Citizens NRCmdashhas seen widespread pushback from almost all strata of society On December 10 after Lok Sabha passed the bill renowned Human Rights activist Harsh Mander made an announcement on Twitter If CAB is passed this is my civil disobedience I will officially register Muslim he wroteI will then refuse to submit any documents to NRC I will finally demand the same punishment as any undocumented Muslimmdashdetention centre amp withdrawn citizenship Join this civil disobedienceIn an interview with Sunday midday Mander describes his brand of civil disobedience and focuses on why the middleclass specially Hindus must not procure documents to prove their citizenship as per NRCDoes civil disobedience hold the same importance in the 21st century as it did during the freedom struggleI think it is even more relevant today What Gandhi taught us is that if there is an unjust law and you want to peacefully fight against it then you must publicly break the law However doing just this much is not enough You also have to demand that the State punishes youso that the State has no option but to punish you or do away with the law Civil disobedience is a very powerful tool because it is nonviolent and more importantly it causes suffering only to the person who is resisting ratherthan impose violence on anyone elseHow declaring yourself Muslim count as civil disobedienceThe obvious civil disobedience is to boycott the NRC that is built around CAB The problem with doing so is that if you are not a Muslim then there are no adverse consequences to you because the act is designed to protect you ie a nonMuslim So if as a nonMuslim I disobey the law in public then there is no value because I am not going to be punishedbut if a Muslim invokes civil disobedience then they will be punished and someone like me will go scotfree Therefore for official purposes once NRC is implemented I will declare myself as a Muslim Lets be clear I will not convert to Islam or any other religion but for the purpose of information of the State I will be a registered Muslim If Muslims are being sent to detention centers then even I must go Another important aspect is that Muslims who are able to produce documents should not procure such documents and those of us who are nonMuslims and wish to participate in the civil disobedience must first register as Muslimmdashand then not produce documentsHow do you see Indias future over the next few yearsI think things are going to get worse I think that during Modis first tenure a lot of us saw where he was coming from based on the what he had done in Gujarat A lot of people were willing to give him a chance because he spoke a lot about jobs and corruptionand so Modi in 2014 was elected by some people because of his Hindutva belief but other people who were affected by the economy and deepening farm crisis too voted for him Modi 20 is different In 2019 he had nothing else to offer except the Hindutva brand of politics because the economy was in terrible shape the farm crisis didnt yet have a solution and corruption had finally grown All that they had to offer this time around was Hindu nationalismand when they got an even larger mandate in 2019 they are interpreting it as a mandate to implement their core agenda of Hindutva which dates back around 100 years when the Hindu Mahasabha was formed They Hindu Mahasabha believed that India should be a Hindu nation and Muslims should form another country At the core of the Indian Constitution is that ones religious identity has nothing to do with the rights of the citizensbut the RSS never really accepted this From there weve come to a point today when the PM and President are all members of the RSS They have an expansive mandate and see this time as an opportunity to rebuild India according to their imaginationthey have gone very far to implement their own ideology If their agenda is fully implemented it will polarise groups further This is an opportunity for usmdashand the young people of this nationmdashto decide whether we want to be a secular country or a Hindu nation Muslims are living in fear across the country and if you are an Indian this is the makeorbreak momentIs there anything that you would like to say to the uppermiddle class urban dweller who think heshe will remain unaffected by the implementation of CAB and NRCI would particularly appeal to those people who are capable of producing their documents to not procure them If you do produce them what you are doing is throwing the impoverished and poorly educated Muslims under the bus Therefore even those who have the capacity to produce documents should not do it The motto should be Reject CAB Boycott the NRCCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates