A country without citizens.

"A passport is primarily a travel document and should not be treated as proof of citizenship, a senior external affairs ministry official said...at an event to highlight the expansion of passport services across the country on 14th Passport Seva Divas. The passport attests the nationality of Indians when they are abroad but it isn't a document of citizenship, officials clarified." TOI. "In international law, nationality is a legal identification establishing a person as a subject, a national of a sovereign state." wikipedia. What then is the difference between a nation and a state? "A nation is a group of people with a common language, history, culture and (usually) geographic territory. A state is an association of people characterised by institutions of government, including laws; permanent territorial boundaries; and sovereignty (political independence)." Britannica. "There are 28 states and 8 Union territories in the country." And, "From the largest to that smallest, each State/UT of India has a unique demography, history and culture, dress, festivals, language etc." india.gov.in. Therefore, each state in India is a nation, but the states are not sovereign and cannot issue passports. Only the Union government can. But the Union government cannot attest to our nationality, only the states can. This confusion is dangerous. China "claims approximately 90,000 sq km of Indian territory in State of Arunachal Pradesh, Indian territory under occupation of China in Jammu & Kashmir is approximately 38,000 sq kms." mea.gov.in. If the people of these states are not citizens of India what will they defend? An application for a new passport requires any one of eight documents as proof of identity but not of citizenship. Bajaj Finserve. Apparently, the only real proofs of citizenship are Certificate of Naturalisation or a Certificate of Registration issued to foreign nationals obtaining Indian citizenship and birth certificate of an individual born after 1950 and their parents. News 18. So, what of those of us born before 1950 when no one had a birth certificate? We were born here, grew up here and have been paying taxes all our lives but we are not citizens. No wonder, "Close to one million Indians have renounced their citizenship over the last five years, with annual numbers crossing the 200,000 mark consistently since 2022, according to data presented by the government tin Parliament." TOI. Since they were not recognized as citizens by the Indian government they lost nothing. But they have gained citizenship of another country. Strangely, "An immigration officer in London, Paris or Washington is expected to place complete faith in the document, while the country that issues it reserves the right to treat with extreme caution and suspicion and ultimately to disregard it entirely." "A death certificate that merely suggested the possibility of death, a birth certificate that did not confirm birth, a driving licence that did not prove the holder could drive,...or a marriage certificate that did not affirm marriage would be laughed out of existence," wrote Rahul Bedi. If an Indian passport is issued on production of documents none which certify citizenship, is it being issued to illegal immigrants? If so, why? In 2019, 20 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were arrested in Tamil Nadu who had "allegedly not only acquired ration cards and driving licenses but had also managed to get authentic Aadhaar cards and, through Aadhaar, passports." TINE. Perhaps, what the officials can't, or won't, say is that the entire bureaucracy is not to be trusted. Documents obtained with money aren't certifiable. Easier to deny citizenship to all Indians. The government is safe.