Fact Check of claims made by Jaggi Vasudev Sadhguru on CAA
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 7, 2020
Jaggi Vasudev (Sadhguru) recently spoke about CAA and during his talk, he made a series of claims on issues related to the CAA. Here is a fact-check of some of those claims.
The Government of India has recently launched an aggressive social media campaign with the tag – #IndiaSupportsCAA to clarify and garner support for Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the wake of widespread protests across the country.
As a part of this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on 29 December 2019, tweeted a video of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, urging people to hear to the explanation provided. This video was originally posted on Sadhguru’s YouTube channel , where he was addressing a gathering and his explanation was in a response to one of the questions asked.
Furthermore,on 30 December 2019, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah has also tweeted this video and asked to ‘stop believing lies and half-truth on CAA’.
Inthis video, Jaggi Vasudev spoke on CAA, NRC and the protests, especially in theuniversities across the country. There were many statements made in this videoand here is a fact-check of some of those statements.
Claim 1 : During partition, 23% stayed back in West Pakistan and 30% stayed back in East Pakistan.
During his talk, Sadhguru says that after the partition in 1947, 23% non-muslims stayed back in West Pakistan and nearly 30% non-muslims stayed back in East Pakistan. He adds a caveat that there is a lot of debate of percentages, however, the numbers should be around this and it cannot be totally wrong.
There was no official census conducted in 1947, which could have provided details of non-Muslims who stayed back in Pakistan (both West and East Pakistan).
As per Bina D’Costa’s book ’Nation building, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia’ , Hindus constituted 1.6% of the population in West Pakistan and 22% in East Pakistan in 1951.
As per the information provided in Lok Sabha on 28 July 2015, approximately 89.04 lakhs migrated to India from Pakistan (West and East ) between 1947 to 1958.
Claim: During Partition, the minority population which stayed back in Pakistan was 23% and 30% in West and East Pakistan respectively.
Fact: While there is no conclusive data regarding share of minorities, Hindus who stayed back is West Pakistan as of 1951 were only 1.6% , much less than 23% quoted by Jaggi Vasudev. Even the number quoted for East Pakistan is wrong.  Hence the statement is False.
Claim 2 : Persecution of minorities during the 1971 war and 18-19 million came into India from East Pakistan.
Thecurrent day Bangladesh was part of Pakistan and was referred to as EastPakistan. While both West Pakistan and East Pakistan were Muslim dominatedregions, they were diverse in terms of ethnicity and language.
Bengali was the prominent language in East Pakistan. One of the main causes of the 1971 war was atrocities committed by Pakistan administration (dominated by West Pakistan) towards Bengali speaking East Pakistanis.
This persecution was not on the basis of religion or directed towards minorities, but was an ethnic-language based conflict, and also one demanding an equal share of power.
Furtherin the talk, Jaggi Vasudev also states that 3 million Hindus were killed inEast Pakistan prior to 1971 war. However, there is no official data on anygenocide based on religious grounds as stated in the talk.
As per the data provided by Home Ministry in response to a question in Lok Sabha on 28 July 2015, about 11,13,958 (1.11 million) people migrated from East Pakistan into India during the period 01/01/1964 and 25/03/1971.
Claim: 18-19 lakhs fled East Pakistan during 1971 war due to religious persecution.
Fact: The displacement which happened due to persecution in the build-up to and during the 1971 war was not based on religious grounds.  As per official records, the number of migrants from East Pakistan during that period was 11.13 lakhs i.e. 1.11 million which is less than the numbers quoted by Sadhguru.  Hence this statement of Sadhguru is Misleading.
Claim 3 :  Hindu marriage is not legal in Pakistan
Furtherin the talk, Sadhguru cites a personal experience of his in Baku where-in he interactedwith Hindus from Pakistan who were visiting a temple there. He narrates thestory of a particular individual and says that he was given to understand thatHindu marriages are not legal in Pakistan.
Althoughhe says that this needs to be checked, he asserts that he spoke with others andwas informed that it was true.  However,Hindu Marriages not being legal in Pakistan is not true.
Pakistanhas in March 2017 brought Hindu Marriages Act- 2017, which provides legal status for marriages donethrough Hindu rituals.
Prior to this legislation, Pakistani Hindus faced problems in obtaining passports and Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs).
Claim: Hindu Marriages are not legal in Pakistan.
Fact: There are multiple instances of atrocities on minority communities especially Hindus in respect to marriages in Pakistan. But currently a law is in place which provides legal validity to Hindu marriages. Hence the statement made by Jaggi Vasudev is Misleading
Claim
4 : Birth certificate, Aadhar, Voter ID etc and other documents as proof for
NRC
Towardsthe end of the talk, Jaggi Vasudev speaks about NRC and albeit rhetoricallycites the below being considered to be proof for being a citizen as part of NRC
Andin case none of these documents are available, statements from 3 witnesses canbe provided.
However,it has to be noted that there is no official notification for a nationwide NRCand hence no information is available on what kind of documents would be  considered as proof for such a nationwideexercise.
Theonly reference we have in respect to NRC and the specifics around it is the NRCcarried out in Assam.  Even in the caseof Assam NRC, the documents to be furnished are not as straight forward asstated by Jaggi Vasudev.
The official website of the Government of Assam provides the list of documents which the citizens are expected to provide as proof. There are two lists.
List
A – Document issued prior to 24 March 1971, containingdetails of the name of Self or ancestors.
List B –  If the document in List A is not of the citizen but of the ancestors, then one of the following documents have to be provided which proves the relationship with the ancestor.
Soclearly, it was not a case simply submitting one of the given documents. Factlyhas earlier provided answers to some FAQs  on the NRC.
As per the draft NRC published in 2019 for Assam, 19 lakh people have been left out of the NRC list, about 5% of the population of Assam.
In an interview recently, Union Home Minister,  Amit Shah did state that Aadhaar, Voter ID etc are not proofs of Citizenship.
Claim: Passport, School certificate etc. are required for NRC and the proof of citizenship is simple.
Fact: While there is no official notification on the documents which needs to be provided for NRC, the experience from Assam NRC shows that proving citizenship is not about simply submitting one of the documents as stated by Jaggi Vasudev.  Hence this statement is Misleading.
Featured Image: Sadhguru on CAA