With having the huge majority in the Parliament along with the allied parties, the BJP ruling Central government has been unveiling its Hindutva propaganda as the party has repeatedly affirmed that its the probable and fortunate time to light the hope of saffronizing the country by darkening the lives of the minorities and the principles of the Indian constitution and through having the vast majority and party-centric support, the party has been signaling to nullify the basic principles, to defy the voices of the people and to forgo the inclusive ideology and the people-centric governance.
The Amendment of Citizenship Act is the latest propaganda rolled out by the BJP party that had spurred and ignited the unprecedented agitations and the unrests of the decade and the country is heading towards the New Year with the stains and uncertainty among the minorities - the direct victims of the act. The act grants the Citizenship based on the religion and it had literally excluded the hardcore suppressed minorities including Sri Lankan Tamils who are living in the refugee camps in Tamil Nadu for over three decades. By including the non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, the bill has omitted the persecuted Tamils in Sri Lanka that had busted the hope of the people living behind the fences and with the restrictions as they would be forever called as 'Refugees'.
After having been left with no hope, Jana, a young-aged Sri Lankan Tamil refugee who is living in the camp in Pavalathanur in Salem district of Tamil Nadu has, on December 16th, addressed to the Salem district collector, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, and the Indian President and in his address, he stated that 'my parents came as refugees to India in 1990 during the civil war in Sri Lanka and I was born in 1991 in India and completed my graduation here and we have been living as refugees in India for the past 29 years and the recently enacted Citizenship Act is totally against of Sri Lankan Tamils'. By citing that he is not willing to let his future generation to live as refugees, he called the government to kill him for mercy - his petition is an on-ground reality and the pain bearing by the people for the past three decades.
Amidst the uncertainty, we toured the refugee camp Pavalathanur in Salem on December 19th to understand the prevailing despair of the Sri Lankan Tamils and these refugees have either directed or threatened by the police department to inform them on the arrival of new faces and around ten minutes after we reached the camp, we were reached out by a police official who inquired us about the reason for the visit. We approached 62-year-old Motilal and he said that the Tamil people in Sri Lanka have been living under the anxiety after the victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and cited that it would further deepen the tensions if the refugees here are ought to return to Sri Lanka and stated that despite availing the facilities from Tamil Nadu government, they have been called as refugees which bars them in acquiring a property or a vehicle and he demanded the Indian government to grant permanent citizenship for the Sri Lankan Tamils who wish to live in India.
While asked about the difficulties in moving to Sri Lanka, Sridharan, a refugee said that his four children were born in India and he underlined the transition of power in Sri Lanka that possess a threat to Sri Lankan Tamils that causes a huge hindrance for them to get relocated. He stated that " we have to incur huge expenses in Sri Lanka for a day and instead, we can manage here in India by doing labor works and urged the Indian government to provide the refugees with citizenship rather than deporting us to Sri Lanka."
The other refugee pointed out that its unfair India is discriminating the displaced Sri Lankan Tamils while the countries like United States, Canada, and Australia grant citizenship in their respective countries and claimed that the Act reveals the biased intention of the Central government by ignoring the Muslims and Tamils and said that the Indian government depends hugely on the Muslim nations for the fuel, petrol, and diesel and what if these countries ban the export of the oil to India? By accusing the government of failing to count the voices of Tamils, he called the government to fulfill the long-term expectations of the Sri Lankan Tamils with Indian citizenship.
What answer does Narendra Modi, who spoke about "Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir" (To us all towns are our own, everyone our kin) in the UN General Assembly, got for the piercing question of 'Where do we go?' raised by Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. Is the government trying to make them and the other minorities as 'Stateless'?
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