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
mohibulhaque@gmail.com
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
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Mohammed Abdul Aleem
Syed Deen
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Sanjeev Kumar Singh
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Zaheer Abbas
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Karuna M
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Aruna Burte
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K V Eswara Prasad
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Salman Sultan
Jyoti Smmi
Leena George
Sheelu Francis
cbanerjee@telus.net
Vineet Tiwari
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bhattacharyyabikashranjan
abde mannaan yusuf
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Dr Aparajita Sharma
Vijay Prasad
Akhil Almeida
Nirja Bhatnagar
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Ghulam Peshimam
Hemlata Rajan
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Zainul Saghar
Mithilesh Kumar
Vivan Sundaram
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Md Aqueel Ahmed
Gurdeep Chawla
Sayed Parvez Mustafa
Prashant S Bhonsle
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Pamela Philipose
A G kaiser
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Philo Thomas
Romar Correa
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Shewar
Mrinalini R
satish s bodh
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vaghela rimmi
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