Here is the text of one more, comprehensive statement of protest from a wide section of Indians on the Modi govt’s recent moves on citizenship. From south to north, these Indians have offered an informed and nuanced view on why both policy decisions of the centre are misguided and worse, unconstitutional.
Citizenship has been defined as the right to have rights. Citizenship in India is based on the non-negotiable principles of equality and non-discrimination. India, when it became Independent (1947) and thereafter when it firmly rooted itself in an inclusive and composite nationhood, in 1950, accepted that people of all faiths, creeds, castes, languages and genders, equally and without discrimination are Indian.
In sharp contrast to this foundational commitment and history, over the past six years, there are clear political moves to fundamentally assault and redefine this Constitutional basis of both Indian nationhood and citizenship. Especially now, with the newly drafted proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 (that is now proposed to be re-introduced in the 2019 Winter Session of Parliament) and second through a hurried, and not thoroughly debated all India-level NPR-National Register of Citizens (NRC) process.
Both these moves need to be categorically protested and condemned.
CAB (2019) makes a promise to entertain requests for refuge and citizenship to all those ‘persecuted minorities’ from three Islamic countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who reached India before either 2014 or later. The amendments by giving special privileges to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, Parsis and Christians from these three countries, single out Muslims for exclusion. For example, neither the Ahmadiyas, who are undoubtedly persecuted in Pakistan, nor do possible asylum seekers like the Rohingyas from Myanmar or Tamils from Sri Lanka have any place here.
For the first time there is a statutory attempt to not just privilege peoples from some faiths but at the same time relegate another, Muslims, to second-rate status. The proposed amendments to India’s 1955 citizenship law (Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019) need to be strongly rejected on these counts alone, in that they are divisive and discriminatory in character. The CAB, 2019 is at odds with Constitutional secular principles and a violation of Articles 13, 14, 15, 16 and 21 which guarantee the right to equality, equality before the law and non discriminatory treatment by the Indian state.
This regime threatens to go further. Through the process of enlisting for a National Population Register (NPR) and thereafter a National Register of Citizens(NRC), the present government appears intent on causing huge upheavals within Indian society. Assam has, especially since 2013 been reeling under the impact of this ill-conceived exercise. Apart from the huge material costs, the human costs have been immeasurable. Death, families torn apart; detention camps and foreigners’ tribunals; fear, the spectre of statelessness – this is what the ordinary people, especially minorities, Dalits, women, children and the poor have had to suffer and continue to suffer. The worst impacted are women and children.
A nation-wide NRC, will unleash widespread division and suffering among people across the country – rather than address the critical needs, from food security and employment to the annihilation of discrimination based on caste, community and gender, to the freedom to speak, worship, and live as our diverse people choose. Today 19 lakh persons (1.9 million live a broken existence in Assam with the sword of statelessness hanging over them. Does the rest of India want to tread this path?
Never mind this history, the Indian government wishes now to replicate an Assam like trauma on the entire Indian people. While the government has announced, or rather decreed, that the NPR survey would begin from April 2020 onwards, there has been no public debate and clarity –in parliament or elsewhere– on the criteria of inclusion and exclusion within this ‘register’ once its begins. Neither has there been any deliberation on the documents that will be required and demanded as standards of poof. There is also complete silence on the ‘cut-off date’ that will be used as the bottom line.
Indian citizenship law grants citizenship by birth to all born before 1987. After that date apart from the citizens birth the requirement is that one parent needs to have been born in India before 1987. After 2004, there is an additional qualification that neither parent should be an illegal migrant. Given this calibration in existing law, what is or will be the criteria for inclusion and exclusion in the NPR/NRC? In a constitutional democracy can such an exercise be shrouded in secrecy?
Indian society is stratified with the ‘document’ being the privilege of the moneyed and few. Internal migration, natural and manmade disasters particular affect and target marginalised and displaced populations who have to struggle to produce these standards of proof. India has not yet given its migrant labour populations basic voting rights. Despite a birth registration law that dates to 1969, only 58 % of Indian births are today registered. The Aadhar experiment has thrown up its own levels of horror stories.
Under these circumstances must Indians allow their government to throw them into this conundrun of proof of existence by the document?
We must unequivocally reject CAB 2019 and at the same time in the same breath, NPR/NRC.
Signatories
- Justice PB Sawant ( SC retd)
- Justice Hosbet Suresh ( Bombay HC retd)
- Justice BG Kolse Patil ( ex Bombay HC)
- Javed Akhtar
- Swami Agnivesh
- Anil Dharker
- Nandan Maluste
- Naseeruddin Shah
- Saeed Mirza
- Cyrus Guzder
- Harsh Mander
- Aparna Sen
- Admiral Ramdas
- Mallika Sarabhai
- Zeenak Shaukat Ali
- Nasreen Fazalbhoy
- Prabhat Patnaik
- Utsa Patnaik
- Gita Kapur
- Teesta Setalvad
- Javed Anand
- Anjum Rajabali
- Mihir Desai
- Sandhya Gokhale
- Chitra Palekar
- Shankuntala Kulkarni
- Vasanthi Devi
- SP Udaykumaran
- Madhushree Dutta
- Sanjoy Hazarika
- Anand Patwardhan
- Sanjay Parikh
- Sudhindra Kulkarni
- Henri Tiphagne
- Arfa Khanum
- Sandeep Pandey
- Arundhati Dhuru
- Muniza Khan
- Saif Mahmood
- Vivek Monteiro
- Sonja Gill
- Mousumi Barua
- Tapas Ray
- Amir Rizvi
- Qutub Kidwai
- Sageer
- Feroze Mithiborwala
- Jaffer Sadiq
- Askari Zaidi
- Mohammed yacoob
- Suhel Banerjee
- Milind Barsing
- Brinelle D’souza
- Apeksha Vora
- Prabha Pandey
- Vaishali Janarthanan
- Sandhya Gokhale
- Partho Sarothi Ray
- Kalamuddin
- Irfan Khan
- Yasmeen Aga
- Zamser Ali
- Preeti Lourdes John
- Nabeel
- Nisha Biswas
- Persis Ginwalla
- T.Kumar
- Isfakur Ahmed Choudhury
- Sadique Basha
- Anjali Monteiro
- KP Jayasankar
- Bharti Vora
- Mohammad Sharif Khan
- Mohammad Sahil Choudhari
- Sushmita
- Shweta Damle
- Urmila Salunkhe
- Jameelabegum
- Vahida Nainar
- Kausar ansari
- Kalyanee Boruah
- J Khan
- Kamalakar Shete
- Razia Rupani
- Paankhi Agrawal
- Sathya S
- Ammu Abraham
- Bilal Khan
- Aslam Abdulrahim Baig
- Ravindra Kulkarni
- Henri Tiphagne
- Cynthia Tiphagne
- Ahsan Khan
- Aseer
- Sundarrajan
- Rituraj Kalita
- Vijayakumar
- Vinod Nehemiah
- Dr.Anantharamakrishnan Senthivel
- Mohammed Afzal
- Stanley Fernandez
- Mahaboob Batcha
- Society for Community Organisation Trust ( SOCO Trust)
- Lara Jesani
- Archana Hande
- Mati
- Anil Khatri
- Bhimrao Sakya
- Sabhee Keshwaar
- Amarjit Singh
- Geeta Seshu
- Marcellus Crasto
- Archana Prasad
- Syed Deen
- Sharfuddin Ahmad
- R. Rajagopal
- M Suhail Khan
- Meenakshi Joshi
- Neeta Ratwani
- A R Shaikh
- Abdul Rauf
- M P Terence Samuel
- Mohan
- Arbaz Aga
- Asha Nehemiah
- Mallika Shah
- Manish Ravindra Deshpande
- Athr Parwez
- Shabnam Hashmi
- Sandeep Saurav (AISA)
- Ningthoukhongjam Rajesh
- Rupesh Gaikwad
- Chandra Nath Dani
- Assinar Ponnan
- Aquila Khan
- Safdar Omar Khan
- Saifuddin Ahmed
- Sarwar zaman
- Mohammad Rashed Ahmad
- Shefali Saini
- Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
- Noorulain Rezavi
- Neha Ansari
- Varsha
- Bonani Ghosh
- Farida Patharia
- Vivekanandan
- Eliyas Ahmed
- Manju
- Rosely
- Rajendiran R
- Nitin Basrur
- chandrasekar
- Shaiz Uddin Ahmed
- Shabana Ansari
- Vyankatesh Sambrani
- Aruna Sambrani
- Faiaz Ahmed
- Siraj Ahmed jafferi
- Prabhat Kumar Choudhary
- Nitin
- Sandhya
- Sandesh
- Shakeel Ahmed
- Ashfaque Pinjari
- V Durai
- Sarfaraz
- Sheikh Sajeed Akbar
- Maya Nair
- Abid Faheem (Research Scholar, JNU)
- Meghana Nair
- Mousumi Barua
- Rupa PP
- Ajitha
- Tapas Ray
- Shaili Satpute
- Nikhil khobragade
- Ramzani
- Mohammad
- Aslam Shaikh
- Nivedita
- Monu
- Anmol
- Mukund Bahalkar
- Nirmalendu Jajodia
- Saif Hanfee
- Saif
- Ravi Jadhav
- Yuvraj S Gatkal
- Mayank Saxena
- Umakant Pawaskar
- Dr.Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed
- Archana Sarfare
- Debabrata Laifungbam
- Kasimsait
- Ibrahim Patel
- Agree with you
- Shafaat khan
- Mohamed Musliyarakath
- Zaheer Ahmed sayeed
- Feroze Mithiborwala
- Latoya Ferns-Advani
- Charmaine Ferns
- Najid Hussain
- Sanchita
- Sarbendu Guha
- Prof MH Jawahirullah
- Suhel Tirmizi
- Kavita Srivastava
- Bobbieandmarie
- Vasanthi Raman
- Dipak Malik
- Archis Mohan
- Meera Sanghamitra
- Khalida Parveen
- Nikita Naidu
- Sarah Mathews
- Nikhat Fatima
- Mohammed Imtiyaz Ali
- Sharifa Siddiqui
- Varsha Bhargavi
- Ambika
- Naira Nazreen
- Ameen Shaikh
- Latika Rajput
- Mohammed Aijaz uddin
- Raheela khan
- A J Jawad
- Ishrath fatima
- Thakur prathibha chouhan
- Abdul Rohail
- Mohammed Shabbir
- Abdul Shoaib
- Abdul sohail
- Anju Khemani
- B.Girija Devi
- Tejaswini Madabhushi
- Asanulla Mallick
- Asit Roy
- Shahira Naim
- Khalid Hasan
- Anand K Sahay
- Keval Arora
- Uma Bhrugubanda
- Susie Tharu
- Rahim
- Paise paise
- Syed shabir
- Asma Rasheed
- Gautam Bhattacharya
- SK Das
- Tuhina khatun
- Gogu Shyamala
- Mohammed Farooque Azam Khan
- I dont want NRC bill for India
- Padmaja Shaw
- Prasanthi P
- Shefali Jha
- Jayasree Subramanian
- Debasish
- Sudhir Vombatkere
- Sumit Chowdhury
- Seethalakshmi
- Dr. Lissy Joseph
- Rachana
- Aditi Chowdhury
- Shahid Meezan
- Ashalatha S
- Nisha Biswas
- Prabir Das
- Devi Pa
- K. Satyavati
- Jothi SJ
- Ilyas Ahmed Shakeel
- Ameen Shaikh
- Arshad BK
- Saleem Khanba
- Shaila Satpute
- Jyoti smmi
- Kaleem
- Anweshi
- Subhir Rajan Mavunkal
- Lara Jesani
- John Dayal
- A Rauf
- Jacob Peenikaparambil
- Bobita Subhir
- [email protected]
- Richard B Saldanha
- Askari Zaidi
- Rajlakshmi Nair
- Marianne Manuel
- Aisha Farooqui
- Sujatha Surepally
- Jyoti Punwani
- Suranjan Gupta
- Ravi Nair
- Sheeba Aslam Fehmi
- Aman
- M. Mandakini
- DR.A.H.AZMI
- Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
- Kaushik Banerjee
- Harsh Kapoor
- Dipal Roychowddhury
- Sarah Khan
- Janhavi mittal
- Henri Tiphagne
- Mohammad Sartaj Alam
- Abdul Hafiz Lakhani
- Faruk Abdul Gaffar bawani
- Farooq a. Bawani
- Tony Sequiera
- Manzar Jameel
- Kaniza Garari
- Prof PKPokker
- Yusuf Garari
- Sebastian Nallail
- Dr Veda Simons from
- Sebastian Nallail
- Pravinsimons
- Farooqui
- J. Jawad
- Jennifer Fernandes
- Harbans Mukhia
- Shyam Pakhare
- David Fernandes
- Civic Chandran
- Somok Roy
- N D Sharma
- Francis Gonsalves
- Siddharth K J
- Dinesh Abrol
- Waheed Mukaddam
- N D Sharma
- Anwesha Sengupta
- Josnat Jacob
- Aparajay, Chennai
- Dr Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed
- Burhan sheikh
- Rajanaaa
- Alok Laddha
- Stanley Fernandez
- Shevlin Sebastian
- Mohammed Imran
- Sadia Wahidi
- Jeroo Mulla
- Ali
- Krishnaraj
- Deepa Punjani
- Dr. MA Ibrahimi
- N.D.Jayaprakash
- Sunil Michael Caleb
- John Jayaharan
- Damodar Mauzo
- Mohd Munna
- Shereen Sultana
- S.Q.Masood
- Dr Lubna Sarwath, Hyderabad
- Jagdish Malkani
- M Z Baig
- Swati Narayan
- Damodar Mauzo
- Tanushree Gangopadhyay
- Meenal Bashir Mamdani
- Gorky Chakraborty
- Viswanathan PL
- Barnita
- Amitha George
- Ankit S
- Thahira Iqbal
- Dr. Aftab Alam
- Dilip D’Souza
- Tilottama Karlekar
- Dr Anis Aansari IAS(r)
- Dr.Ali Imam Khan
- Shaik shabberhussain
- Prof Pritam Singh Oxford
- Debasmita Deb
- Tania Deb
- Anne Heloise Theo
- Lalita Ramdas
- Rosemary Viswanath
- Amitadyuti Kumar
- K.C.Gopikumar
- Dr Reeteka Sud
- K.C.Gopikumar
- Vivek Sundara
- Altafhusen
- Talat parveen
- Purushottama Bilimale
- Abdul kalim
- Rizwana khatoon
- Karthika Annamalai
- Mohammad Abdussamad Khan
- Reject CAB
- Rizwana Khatoon
- Rashmi Gera
- Ghanshyam Shah
- Shaukat Mohammed
- Madhusudhan Raman
- Yes I endorse the statement
- Beulah Caleb
- Aruna Rodrigues
- MABaby
- Prem Ram M R
- Aijaz Zaka Syed
- Akshay Khanna
- Dheeraj S P
- Pradeep Esteves
- Rabin Chakraborty
- Fathima R F
- Ritu Dewan
- Avijit Chatterjee
- Sira
- John V J
- Sumi Krishna
- Timir Ghoshal
- DL Tripathi
- Kazim Naqvi
- Tariq
- Anuradha Prasad
- Asokan Mundon
- Biju Viswanath
- Sweta Dash
- Amrita Shodhan
- Kartikeyan V
- Shah Alam Khan
- Akhil, Student, TISS Mumbai
- Mukesh Rai
- Pradeep Kumar
- K K PRASOON
- Vinod Mubayi
- Surya Ramakrishnan
- Jhuma Sen
- Uma Ravikumar
- Pappu
- Bindu Desai
- Francis Colaso
- Rupa Shah
- Anindo Banerjee
- Afzal Ahmad Khan
- Prasanna Rajashekarappa
- Najeed N. Siddiqui
- Vanya
- Kinshuk Goyal
- Nawaz Heggere
- Yash Kaul
- T. Ramakrishnan
- P Kashyap
- Debabrata Roy
- Molly Jacob
- Rahul Sapkal
- Nagaragere Ramesh
- N. Manu Chakravarthy
- N MANU CHAKRAVARTHY
- Amalendu Upadhyaya (Journalist)
- Matam Pavaman Murthy
- Anuradha Kapur
- Vijayakumar Mattappilly
- Leila Almeida
- Abhijit Almeida
- Gyan Pandey
- Mohammad Sahil
- Kamayani Bali Mahabal
- Madhu Bhushan, Bangalore
- Salim Yusufji
- Chanda Shashikant
- Vivek Basanagoudar
- Ganesh Anantharaman
- Abhilasha Kumari
- Priscilla Rawade
- Sudhir Katiyar
- neelam
- Dr Mazhar Mulla
- Pynskhem Suchen
- Dr Mazhar Khan
- Dipika Sahani
- Prof Zenab Banu
- Pushpa Achanta
- Vasantha rajan G
- Soniya Mariya Varghese
- Iqbal Kohati
- Aftab Khan
- Sekhar Sarkar
- Arul Susai
- Sudha Varghese
- Rappai Poothokaren
- Kumba War
- Firoz
- V. Ramchandran
- Karthika Anthony
- Tanveer Jafri
- Shewli Kumar
- Banegar Abdul Rahman
- Maya Krishna Rao
- Neela D’Souza
- Shiraz Dastoor
- Maya Krishna Rao
- Sharanya Nayak
- Manohar G M
- Hozefa hajuri
- Sara Ahmed
- Anita Rego
- Ranu Jain
- Shahab Ahmad
- Samrat Mukherjee
- Saikat Kumar Dey
- Shaheelabatcha
- Bikashranjan Bhattacharya ,senior advocate
- Shaheelabatcha
- Dhammrakshit
- Karen Gabriel
- Yalgaar
- Noor Zahira
- Aika Gopi
- Rukmini Sen
- Thanksy Thekkekara
- J Merwanji
- Ambika Tandon
- Alaka Basu
- Amrita Chhachhi
- R. Ramachandran
- Deba Ranjan
- Asif
- Pragya Singh
- Sushmita Sekhar
- Parvesh Kumar
- Vimala Morthala
- Eldred Tellis
- Sherna Gandhy
- Masihuddin Sanjari
- Sheeba ameer
- Dr Sylvia Karpagam
- Akash Bhattacharya
- Ashrafi
- Teesta Lahiri
- roopashri sinha
- Dev Desai
- Satyen K. Bordoloi
- Nizamuddin
- Nalini Nayak
- Soundaran Natarajan
- Anushree Jairath
- Thangamani Duraiswamy
- Ashok Choudhary
- Shaili Sathyu
- Nitu Sanadhya
- Farhan Rahman
- Neeta Ratwani
- Sajee Gopal
- Ashley Tellis
- Ajay Noronha
- Saifuddin Doola
- Dr. G. Vijay
- Vispi Balaporia
- Partha Ganguly
- Abdul Rahman
- Mohammed Abdul Aleem
- Syed Deen
- Pillai
- Vineet Tiwari
- Shareef Ambalath
- Saeed Bahamed
- Sarfraj Alam
- Jawed Naqvi
- Rahi Bhide
- S Gurudutt
- Rahi Bhide
- Angbin Yasmin
- Eric Pinto
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- KSJacob
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- Rahman
- P Radhakrishnan
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- Jennifer Mirza
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- Zaheer Abbas
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- Veena Pinto
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- [email protected]
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- abde mannaan yusuf
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