CAA, NRC and NPR in India.

CAA determines the rules of citizenship in India. NRC is the list of Indian citizens. NPR is the list of people residing in India.

India intends to create a through NPR in the near future. In this exercise, a government official will ask you

• Name
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Parent citizenship
• PAN number
• Aadhar number
• Mobile number
• Place of stay
• etc.

NPR will track the population of India. The government can decide whether the person is a citizen of India, based on the rules in CAA. Thus NPR will lead to NRC.

This exercise has some benefits. Many nations keep track of its citizens e.g. the USA, Canada, etc. So India keeping track of its citizens is nothing new. Government benefits are normally only for citizens. Also, people from nearby countries should not be able to just enter India. Many governments try to restrict illegal immigration.

So then why are people opposed to this exercise?
People opposed to CAA say that it is not secular. That is correct. Hindu immigrants from Muslim countries will get citizenship in India more easily than a Muslim immigrant from a Muslim country. But, in my opinion, this is not a major problem. Muslim countries give preference to Muslims. So a Hindu majority country can give preference to Hindus.

The actual problems with this exercise are:

• Showing your documents to a government official is problematic in India. Most Indian bureaucrats demand a bribe to do their work. So genuine citizens, who have all documents, will face harassment.
• People who have lost their documents will have to stand in lines, bribe officials, etc to first get their documents in order. Only then can they become citizens of India. These people will face additional harassment.
• Lakhs of people in India are illiterate. They have minimal or no documents. Do they even have the capability to get the documents and show them to a government official?

NPR (which will lead to NRC based on CAA) will cause problems for everyone in the country. The middle-class and rich will face little harassment because they will arrange documents and pay bribes. The suffering of poor will increase in NPR. So, we have many people, across religions, opposing NPR. Opposition political parties are fanning this unrest to gain votes.

In this environment, the Indian government needs to make the registration process bribe-free and hassle-free e.g.

• The government can ask the people of India to register electronically. If there is no human interaction, then bribes are minimized.
• Instead of asking multiple documents, the government should only ask for one document e.g. PAN card or Aadhar card or birth certificate or school/college leaving certificate or employment certificate or bank account passbook or any document that shows that you are residing in India for many years. Fewer the documents, lesser the hassle.

Then, more people will likely comply with NPR.

Four shocks of Modi

Modi has given the Indian economy four big shocks; thus causing a slowdown.

1. Demonetization: It was supposed to eliminate black money. In India, black money is held mostly in real estate, gold, and dollars. Only a small percentage of black money is held in cash.
2. GST: No other country has GST of this complex nature with such high taxes. The overheads are huge. It benefits accountants, at the cost of legitimate businesses.
3. IBC: It was supposed to clear NPAs of banks, but the process was clogged with delays and lawsuits. So no creditor wants to use it.
4. RERA for real estate was supposed to safeguard the buyer, but instead, it caused a slow down of the entire sector. Now lawsuits take years to resolve.

The Indian economy cannot be revived in the short run. By taking appropriate measures, the Indian economy can be put on a growth path, in the long run.

Cause of Rapes

Nitish Kumar says that porn sites are responsible for rapes in India. By the same logic:

• Crime serials are responsible for thefts.
• Violent movies are responsible for murders.
• Playgrounds are responsible for a lack of education.
• Shops responsible for credit card debts
• Share market responsible for suicides due to financial loss.
• Banks responsible for the poor economy; people save instead of spending.

If porn sites are responsible for rapes, then why are rapes so few in countries like Singapore? Even in Singapore, people have access to porn sites!

The key question is, whether a rapist is born or society makes someone a rapist. In most criminal cases:

1. The criminal had a bad childhood e.g. The parent/care-giver of the child used to beat the child ruthlessly.
2. The criminal started with small crimes e.g. stealing from a store. He got away with these crimes. In fact, he received praise for his daring. There was no one to correct the behavior of the child.
3. The criminal saw/hear others getting away with big crimes. So the size of his crime increased.

Politicians are trying to pass the blame to porn sites. If rape (and in general crime) has to be reduced, then

1. It should be a criminal offense to shout or hit a child of less than 5 year
2. A child of less than 15 years can only be hit for the purpose of self-defense; Any other cause, should be a criminal offence.
3. Justice should not take years. In a few months, punishment should be meted out for crimes taken.

Politicians don't want to punish parents, because children don't vote. Politicians don't want swift justice, because most politicians are criminals.