VOA慢速英语--Critics Say India Citizenship Test Unfairly Targets Muslims

 

India's government is requiring documentation from people to prove they are legal citizens. Some critics of the policy say it discriminates¹ against a local minority Muslim population.

The policy is being carried out in India’s northeastern state of Assam. The Hindu nationalist BJP party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won state legislative² elections in Assam in 2016.

Modi had promised to take action against illegal immigrants that some people accuse of stealing jobs and resources. The Assam government recently began expanding its work on the National Register of Citizens (NRC). People must be listed on the NRC to be considered legal citizens of India.

About four million people in Assam were left off the NRC list and are being asked to provide documents to prove their citizenship³.

One of them is 33-year-old Riyazul Islam, who spoke⁴ to Reuters about his situation. He said he and his mother have no documents left to prove they are Indians. But his father and many others in his family are already listed in the NRC.

“If my father is an Indian citizen how come I am not?” Islam said to Reuters. He spoke with the reporters in the town of Dhubri, near the border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh. “What more proof do they need?” he said.

The government has not given details about the four million people living in Assam who are not on the citizenship list. But most are believed to be minority Bengali-speaking Muslims. Most of the state’s 33 million people are Assamese-speaking Hindus.

Many of those left off the list cannot read or write and come from poor families.

Reuters examined documents from several families in Assam state. The news agency found that in some cases, people were denied citizenship because the names listed on documents they provided were spelled incorrectly. In other cases, documents contained mistakes relating to a person’s age.

Several people who spoke with Reuters said officials rejected their explanations of the mistakes.

Opposition⁵ parties say Modi’s BJP party aims to deny citizenship to Muslims through the Assam list. They say this could be used to demonstrate the party’s commitment to Hindu nationalism ahead of a planned general election set for next year.

The BJP’s spokesman in Assam rejected claims that religion had played a part in the latest citizenship drive. “(This is) being opposed for political mileage⁶, whereas at ground zero there is absolutely no tension,” the spokesman told Reuters.

But Modi’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, has spoken out on the citizenship list. He wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month that the NRC was necessary because growth in the Hindu population of Assam had been overtaken by that of Muslims.

It is not clear what will happen to those left off the final list of citizens. Legal experts say they face denial of citizenship rights and government assistance and could even be sent to detention⁷ camps. They could also be taken off voter lists, which could affect the outcome of the general election.

The Indian government said in 2016 that about 20 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants were living in India.

Samujjal Bhattacharya is an adviser⁸ to the All Assam Students Union, which has led a campaign against illegal immigrants. He told Reuters that for 38 years, the group has been “fighting to protect the language, culture and identity of our indigenous⁹ people in our own motherland.”

Bhattacharya denied the group discriminates against any one community. “It’s not against Muslims, it is not against Hindus, it is not against Bengalis,” he said. “It’s against illegal Bangladeshis. It is a question of citizens and non-citizens.”

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

commitment – n. a promise to support and work toward something

absolutely – adj. completely; beyond any doubt

indigenous – adj. existing naturally or having always lived in a place

1 discriminates   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的第三人称单数 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• The new law discriminates against lower-paid workers. 这条新法律歧视低工资的工人。
• One test governs state legislation that discriminates against interstate commerce. 一个检验约束歧视州际商业的州立法。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

2 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

3 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 mileage   

n.里程，英里数；好处，利润

参考例句：

• He doesn't think there's any mileage in that type of advertising.他认为做那种广告毫无效益。
• What mileage has your car done?你的汽车跑了多少英里？

7 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

8 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

9 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。