Who Is a Legitimate Citizen?

This is with reference to Alok Prasanna Kumar’s article, “National Register of Citizens and the Supreme Court” (EPW, 21 July 2018), which rightly reminded us that the history of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is rooted in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. He warned,

There is, however, a grave risk that the Supreme Court, far from ensuring a fair and just process of preparing the NRC, ends up unleashing a tide of xenophobia and bigotry as the unintended consequences of the project.