Indian Citizenship Act 2019 is unconstitutional dangerous

Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of India 2019:

Unconstitutional, divisive, offensive and dangerous

Dr. Mozammel Haque

The contentious Indian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by both Houses of Indian Parliament on 11 December 2019 is faced by tremendous opposition within India first started in Assam and then spread to Delhi and other provinces of India. The new law CAA, which amends the Citizenship Act of 1955, provides eligibility for minorities from neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to access Indian citizenship. It has come under severe criticism as non-secular, sparking widespread protests in the North East of India.

BBC reported on 19 December 2019:  Civil society groups, political parties, students, activists and ordinary citizens put out a steady stream of messages on Instagram and Twitter, urging people to turn out and protest peacefully. Among those who were briefly detained were Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian and outspoken critic

of the government, in the southern city of Bangalore; and political activist Yogendra Yadav in Delhi. Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, Mr Guha said he had been arrested with hundreds of others from various different backgrounds, "which clearly shows that a large section of Indians is actually opposed to this discriminatory legislation".

What makes this law controversial, according to BBC, is The CAA allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities to become citizens - if they were persecuted because of their religion in the three countries. But critics say this is part of a "Hindu nationalist" agenda to marginalise India's Muslims. The act follows a government plan to publish a nationwide register that it says will identify illegal immigrants.

A National Register of Citizens (NRC) - published in the north-eastern state of Assam - saw 1.9 million people effectively made stateless. The NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act are closely linked as the latter will protect non-Muslims who are excluded from the register and face the threat of deportation or internment, reported by BBC.

 

India’s cruel exercise in exclusion

could leave millions stateless by Priya Pillai 

Writing as early as August 1, 2019 on NRC, Priya Pillai, an international lawyer based in Manila, said, “In the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, as many as 4 million people may soon be excluded from Indian citizenship. Take a moment to think about that: A population similar in size to that of Kuwait or New Zealand may be relegated to non-citizen status on Aug. 31, thanks to an inhumane, cruel and Kafkaesque legal process. Even more worryingly, this process may eventually be enforced across the country.

“This all stems from the “National Register of Citizens" (NRC), a log that is supposed to contain the names of all Indian citizens in Assam. The list, based on the 1951 census, was created to determine who were Indian citizens and who were migrants from neighbouring East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The government is now seeking to update it, deciding that all those who can prove they were Indian residents before midnight on March 24, 1971 — just before Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan — will be considered citizens, as will their descendants. Those who cannot are to be excluded from the register, detained and, if unable to prove citizenship before a “foreigners tribunal,” subject to deportation,” wrote Priya Pillai.

‘Excessive force used’, UN

This action by the India’s Modi government came under severe criticism by both United Nations, Human Rights activists, Indian former judges, Academics and Pakistani Senate. On Tuesday night, the UN raised concerns about the “excessive force” used against students. Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said: “We call for restraint and urge full respect for the rights of freedom of opinion and expression and peaceful assembly.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed
Slams India's Citizenship Law 
Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir criticised India's new citizenship law, which is seen as discriminatory against Muslims. The law has stoked fear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remould India as a Hindu nation and marginalise its 200 million Muslims, who form nearly 14 per cent of India's 1.3 billion population. "I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state now is taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship,@ said the 94-year-old leader. 

Arundhati Roy called India's 

new citizenship law dangerous

Acclaimed writer and activist Arundhati Roy has joined in the protest in New Delhi on Wednesday, urging Indians to protect each other and guard against any oppression by Indian police and security forces. She was interviewed by Al-Jazeera TV channel. 

In reply to question by Al-Jazeera, Roy said, "I am hopeful because this movement intellectually understands and emotionally and passionately understands the horror of this Hindutva Programme that Modi, BJP, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu Spremacist organisation) have been selling for so many years and of course in power since 2014.

Former Judge on India’s Supreme Court, Judge

B. N. Srikrishna says it is pushing the country to the brink of chaos

B.N. Srikrishna, a former judge on India’s Supreme Court, said, “They want a theocratic state like Pakistan or Israel, where they give rights to one religion and the other religions aren’t given anything.’’ “This is pushing the country to the brink, to the brink of chaos,” said Judge Srikrishna.

“This is how waves of communal violence start in the country,” he added.

Unconstitutional, communal idea of citizenship,

 says social scientist Hiren Gohain

In Assam, the north-eastern state of India where the protests first began a week ago, and where six people have lost their lives in the clashes so far, thousands of government employees took to the streets. Among the demonstrators was eminent Assamese literary critic and social scientist Hiren Gohain, who described the new citizenship law as “ghastly and malicious”. “We want to maintain our tradition of social harmony,” said Gohain. “We are at one with the rest of the country in opposing an unconstitutional, communal idea of citizenship. If people want freedom, if they don’t want to be slaves, they will have to maintain the struggle.”

Police used Islamophobic slurs and taunts, says

Harsh Mander prominent Human Rights Activists

Harsh Mander, a prominent human rights activist, said he would be filing an official complaint of serious police atrocities over officers’ actions at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. Police violently stormed the campus, firing teargas and detaining dozens of Muslim students.

Speaking to the Guardian, Mander said multiple students and teachers recounted how the police had used Islamophobic slurs and taunts at the Muslim students as they beat them with batons, including calling them “khatana”, which means circumcised, and shouting the Hindu nationalist slogan “Jai Shri Ram”, meaning Hail Lord Ram, a Hindu God.

“When they brought him to the police station, he described the hateful Islamophobic taunts that the police were saying to him,” said Mander. “They beat him up so badly that his hand was broken, and even after they broke it, they kept beating him. He showed me the terrible marks all over his body.”

CAB is unconstitutional, says IOC UK President

The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter organised its “Bharat Bachao Rally” (Save India) outside the Indian High Commission in London to coincide with similar protests in New Delhi and around the world. “The rally is against the Modi government’s failures, including the economic crisis, high unemployment, farmer distress and divisive politics,” said an IOC UK spokesperson. In reference to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the IOC UK spokesperson added: “CAB is unconstitutional, which has set fire in the North Eastern states.”

Historian Ramachandra Guha was dragged away

by police, says Amit Chaudhuri, a novelist and Professor

Amit Chaudhuri, a novelist and Professor wrote in The Guardian, “In the past week, Indian politics has seen the return of a federalism that the BJP is even more bitterly hostile to than Indira Gandhi was. Six states – West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha – have refused to participate in Delhi’s plan for a nationwide NRC. Many individuals have begun to go into the civil disobedience mode that Indians adopted under the British, saying they would either not furnish papers for the NRC or that they would declare themselves Muslim. Mass protests on 19 December happened despite restrictions under colonial-era section 144 (proscribing a gathering of more than four persons) being declared wherever the BJP has control of law and order. TV channels showed a student stopping the policeman who was kicking her friend with ferocious finger-wagging admonishment alone; on 19 December, the historian Ramachandra Guha was dragged away by police mid-se

ntence in a peaceful protest. It is a time for shame and sadness; a time of pride and joy. Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist and professor at the University of East Anglia.

Seniors join Indian Citizenship

Law protests in Assam, Anupam Nath

Anupam Nath of AP from Gauhati, India reported on 25 December 2019: “Senior citizens in India’s north-eastern Assam state have protested against a new citizenship law passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that excludes Muslims. About 1,500 senior citizens held a protest in the state capital, Gauhati, on Monday. Protests in the state against the law have spread across the country, claiming at least 23 lives.

“Until our last drop of blood, we will not allow them to implement it,” said Gajendra Nath Pathak, 81, who joined the senior citizens’ protest. Bina Bora, 70, said she couldn’t sit at home while other people were protesting the law. “Why is the government forcefully implementing such a law, which will destroy unity,” she asked.

The new Citizenship Amendment Act allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally to become citizens if they can show they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It does not apply to Muslims. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to India’s streets to call for the revocation of the law, which critics say is the latest effort by Narendra Modi’s government to marginalize the country’s 200 million Muslims. Hazarika said she has come to join the protest as she cannot sit inside her home while the country burns against CAA. (Anupam Nath/Associated Press)

Protest In the UK

People from different groups gathered outside the Indian High Commission in London on Saturday, the 15^th of December 2019 to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and what they branded as Modi government's "failures", reported by PTI. A group of protesters from the British Assamese community, dressed in their traditional attire and accompanied by children, waved placards in Assamese as well as some in English that read: “Save Democracy, Stop CAB”. The peaceful demonstration involved some sloganeering against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which was signed into law earlier this week. “Assam is united and CAB is divisive. Say no to division, yes to unity,” said one of the activists.

Alongside, the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter organised its “Bharat Bachao Rally” (Save India) to coincide with similar protests in New Delhi and around the world.

“The rally is against the Modi government’s failures, including the economic crisis, high unemployment, farmer distress and divisive politics,” said an IOC UK spokesperson. In reference to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the IOC UK spokesperson added: “CAB is unconstitutional, which has set fire in the North Eastern states.”

Condemnation by Pakistan Parliament

Pakistan Today reported on 23 December 2019 from Islamabad that Senate Standing  Committee on Interior on Monday strongly condemned the recent discriminatory legislation “The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019” passed by India and the 140th-day long curfew in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Abdur Rehman Malik at Parliament House.  While observing the 140th Day of curfew, Senator Rehman Malik said that this committee will continue to condemn Indian brutalities and urge the Government to move in International Court of Justice against PM Narendra Modi for his crimes against humanity.

He said that Indian government by one after another action is sidelining the Muslims and other minorities to convert India into a Hindu State alone. He informed the committee that he has written a letter to the editor in chief of the Guinness World Records to include the longest curfew imposed by the Indian government in Kashmir in the Guinness book.

Editorials condemned the CAA

British Newspapers carried editorials on the Indian Citizenship Act (CAA).

The Guardian Editorials:

 Modi’s citizenship law:dangerous for all

Writing editorials, The Guardian wrote editorially on 17 December 2019: Modi’s citizenship law: dangerous for all. It continues, “ Thousands nationwide have protested against India’s new citizenship law in recent days, facing a brutal police response. This is arguably the biggest display of opposition to Narendra Modi since he took power six years ago, and for good reason. Demonstrators have been urged into action not by the sense of a new direction being established, but of the confirmation of the country’s alarming trajectory.

It commented, “The legislation is the proof that Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist project is not a containable anomaly, but an enterprise that threatens the nation’s very foundations of pluralism and secularism. Fear overshadows the hopes of that seven-decade endeavour.”

Commenting on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of India, The Guardian Editorially commented, “It is inherently one of exclusion, which discriminates against Muslims fleeing persecution, and signals that Muslim citizens are not “truly” Indian. It undermines constitutional protections which apply to foreigners as well as citizens in India.”

“Look to north-eastern Assam, where almost two million people face statelessness following exclusion from the National Register of Citizens, sometimes because of simple clerical errors. Citizens have been turned into foreigners. Detention centres are already under construction. The home affairs minister, Amit Shah, has compared illegal immigrants to termites and says India will not allow a single one to stay,” observed editorially.

Editorial also observed, “Lynchings by Hindu nationalists have risen sharply under Mr Modi. That the legislation is deepening communal divides is not accidental. The prime minister’s claim that those setting fires “can be identified by their clothes” was read as a clear reference to Muslims. It is the rankest hypocrisy to accuse others of spreading violence, even if it were possible to set aside Mr Modi’s.”

The Observer Editorial

Narendra Modi has gone too far: Hindus and Muslims

deserve better from a secular nation

The Observer editorially observed on Sunday 22 December 2019:  Narendra Modi has gone too far: Hindus and Muslims deserve better from a secular nation.

The editorial commented: “Narendra Modi’s new Indian citizenship law is dangerous and offensive. It is dangerous because it institutionalises and encourages discrimination against Muslims, a minority of 200 million people that is already the target of daily, petty prejudice and periodic, violent persecution. It is offensive because, whatever the government says, it clearly undermines India’s post-independence constitutional commitment to a secular state.”

“As we noted at the time, the arbitrary imposition, without prior consultation, of direct rule from Delhi and the suspension of Kashmiris’ democratic freedoms, which continues, amounted to an authoritarian coup with negative global implications. Indeed, Kashmir turned out to be a test run for the internet and mobile phone shutdowns that greeted last week’s protests against the citizenship law, it observed.