Senior IPS officer Abdur Rahman, IGP, Mumbai, resigned to register his civil protest against the passage of the Citizen's Amendment Bill (CAB) on December 11, the day CAB was passed in Parliament. In an open letter he had addressed to “brothers and sisters”, hours before CAB was voted in the Rajya Sabha, he said, "This Bill is against the religious pluralism of India. I request all justice loving people to oppose the bill in a democratic manner. It runs against the very basic feature of the Constitution.”
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The proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which has been passed by the Lok Sabha and going to be passed in the Rajya Sabha, as the numbers are in the favour of the Bill, aims to grant Indian citizenship to illegal migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, etc., religious communities, i.e. all non-Muslim communities. It clearly discriminates against the people belonging to Muslim community.
The Bill is totally unconstitutional and against very basic feature of Equality before Law. It violates Article 14, 15 and 25 of the Indian Constitution. It is against the ethos and very spirit of the Constitution. Religion cannot become a basis in giving or depriving a person from citizenship.
The whole idea behind the Bill is to divide the nation on religious and sectarian lines. It creates fear among the people belonging to the Muslim community. It also compels Muslims to leave their faith and adopt some other religion to save their citizenship. This is totally divisive and unconstitutional Bill.
We have heard repeatedly that this will be implemented along with the National Register of Citizens (NRC). We have seen the result of NRC exercise in the state of Assam where about 19 lakh people are kept out of the NRC, and among them 14 to 15 lakh belong to Hindu community.
The exercise has been painful and affected people belonging to Dalits, Tribals, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Muslims and the poor belonging to all communities. They had to spend huge money and ran from pillar to post to collect the required documents to prove their citizenship.
If NRC and CAB implemented jointly, then people belonging to non-Muslim communities, even if unable to produce the required document, will be declared refugees and will be given Indian citizenship. This means that the real burden will be only on Muslims to prove their citizenship. This will cause statelessness and hardships on Muslims who have been living in India for thousands of years, and majority of them are the original inhabitants of India.
It runs against the "religious pluralism" and "spirit of tolerance" of the Indian nation. If implemented it will destroy the brotherhood and common fabric among the people.
I condemn this Bill. As a civil disobedience, I have decided not to continue in the service and thus not to attend office from tomorrow. I am quitting the service finally. I say sorry to those who want me to continue in service and give justice to the deprived people.
I humbly request the people belonging to the poor and people of deprived sections, i.e. scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), OBCs and Muslims to oppose the Bill in a democratic manner as it is going to harm them the most. I also request tolerant, secular and justice loving Hindu brothers who have idea of a prosperous and united India to oppose the Bill.
I further request activists and members of Civil Society Groups to challenge it in the Supreme Court, if at all it is finally passed and becomes an Act.
