Letter to BS: No point in asking 25% of labour force to prove nationality

The recent countrywide uprising by students and members of the civil society is unnerving. The implementation of CAA and the imminent operationalisation of the National Register of Citizens is a dangerous cocktail for our political economy that is already on the stretcher. It is widely thought that the enforcement of such laws will inflict the same amount of pain and damage to our social and political firmament as did demonetisation to our economy barely three years ago. 

The economy is paying a heavy price for that single step and the pain is not over yet. As the saying goes, history repeats itself; the second time as a farce. We are surely and steadily converting the demographic dividend into a demographic curse. If not, then what is the point of forcing 25 per cent of our existing labour force to abjure work and queue up to prove their existence, nationality, citizenship, identity and so on?

Ganga Narayan Rath, Hyderabad

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