India is unlikely to deport to Bangladesh people who fail NRC test. But the millions who will become non-citizens will have fewer rights
The phrase “India’s internal matter” has featured prominently in the country’s diplomacy in recent days. It cropped up repeatedly in the government’s responses to the international fallout of the moves on Jammu and Kashmir: To scrap Article 370 and downgrade the state to a Union Territory. The country’s diplomats have pointed to the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore resolution of 1999 to assert India’s jurisdictional competence to take those actions.
“Every new agreement overtakes the past,” says India’s ambassador to the UN regarding the international commitments made in an earlier era. But whether the Centre’s unilateral action— and the communication blockade and security crackdown imposed on the people most affected by it — is consistent with the commitment to resolution of differences through peaceful and bilateral means is quite another matter.
Last week, the “internal matter” formulation also surfaced in a somewhat novel context. In statements made in Dhaka, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar described the process of the identification of citizens and non-citizens in Assam as India’s internal matter.
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