Distinction needs to be made between refugees and illegal

A distinction has to be made between refugees and illegal immigrants, union minister Smriti Irani said here Tuesday, against the backdrop of controversies surrounding the NRC and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Assam.

The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published a few months back, in which about 40 lakh people were found to be lacking valid papers which could qualify them as being the citizens of India.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.

 

Both of these have been surrounded by controversies.

On Tuesday, 46 groups organised a 12-hour shutdown in Assam to protest against the Citizenship Bill.

"We have to make a distinction between refugees and illegal immigrants. That is where a lot of angst can be addressed," Irani, Minister of Textiles, said at the 'Young Thinkers' conference organised by the British High Commission and the Observer Research Foundation here.

"You have somebody who has been given a particular status because the government recognises their political, social compulsions to come over and seek refuge in your country," she said, apparently referring to the Citizenship Bill.

Apparently referring to illegal immigrants sought to be identified under NRC, the minister said, "when somebody infiltrates your border, comes in and gets into many schemes just by virtue of breaking the law, that is something that has to be looked into in a different context."

Irani also spoke on the question of populism.

"Populism and people on the margins is a third context altogether because the government policies are made not keeping in mind a particular segment distinguishing a refugee or illegal immigrant. It is for all Indians," she said.

The minister asked whether it was a "new phenomena" that many women would cook using firewood and cough in their kitchens.

"Were they doing it only in 2014? No. They have been doing it since 70 years of independence. So when you address that issue, is that populism? It is not," she added.

She said anybody who has studied the impact of health and economy, knows that the poorest of the poor become poorer still when somebody in the family falls sick.

"So, when I say I will give an insurance cover for 1,300 various diseases so that when you fall sick you can go to a recognised government hospital and get the cover, is that populism? It is smart economics," Irani said.