Using legal institutions, the citizenship of many Indians is being stripped away – in contravention of the Constitution. That is what legal scholar Mohsin Alam Bhat points out, as he discusses a report he has written titled Unmaking Citizens: The Architecture of Rights Violation and Exclusion in India’s Citizenship Trials.

The report examines how Assam’s citizenship verification regime systematically undermines the rule of law and basic human rights. It shows how nearly 166,000 people have already been declared foreigners, often based on minor documentary errors, missed notices or customary practices such as a woman’s name changing after marriage.

Bhat participates in a discussion with lawyer HRA Choudhary and independent journalist Arshad Ahmed, moderated by author and rights activist Harsh Mander.

The system reverses the burden of proof, Bhat points out, forcing largely poor and marginalised groups, especially Miya Muslims, to prove their citizenship through documents they often lack. Many cases are decided ex parte, without the accused being heard.

Choudhary, who has spent years defending those declared foreigners and Arshad Ahmed, who has been reporting on the crisis from ground, share the legal battles, personal struggles, and human stories behind one of the most urgent questions in India today – who gets to belong.

They also talk about the recent illegal “pushbacks” of Miya Muslims into Bangladesh, the violence and killing faced by those labelled encroachers and the climate of fear that shadows everyday life.

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