In a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, about 1200+ citizens ranging from farmers to housemakers to academics, retired bureaucrats and senior citizens to civil society activists, doctors and lawyers to journalists, have endorsed a statement seeking his intervention for the repeal of the Citizens Amendment Act-National Population Register-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NPR-NRC) immediately.
Celebrating two years of the Shaheen Bagh protests which rocked Delhi in 2019, in an open letter, they said, "The CAA-NPR-NRC project of the government of India has been deeply problematic since it was first proposed and rushed through Parliament."
"In fact", the letter said, "Starting in the Shaheen Bagh area of New Delhi in late 2019, protests against it rose spontaneously in over 100 neighbourhood sites across the nation, and indeed the globe. These protests articulated the Constitutional right of every citizen of India to be treated as an equal irrespective of caste, gender, religion, region, ethnicity, etc."
Stating that the protests were "withdrawn or forcibly shut down following the Coronavirus pandemic", it noted, "The peoples’ demand for the withdrawal has remained as steadfast as ever", pointing out, "Citizens across caste, religion, creed and gender" have again come together at "more than 25 sites across the country to reiterate our plea for the repeal of CAA-NPR-NRC" with memorandums already submitted to many district and state level officials across the country "to this effect as well."
Text:
We, citizens from villages, towns and cities across the country write to you with regard to the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and the NPR-NRC project linked to it.We write to you to register our strong opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and demand its repeal. This Act threatens the very foundation of our Constitution by redefining citizenship on the basis of religion. It violates Article 14 of our Constitution that accords that no person residing in India will be discriminated against on the basis of religion, caste, gender etc.
Nationwide implementation of a project like NRC that would demand its citizens to submit elaborate documentation that a large majority of the working poor population of the country do not possess, would only be an instrument of harassment and exclusion for stripping citizens from citizenship rights. It is clear to us that the combination of CAA-NPR-NRC is being used to target religious minorities in our country and to further communalise and polarise our society on religious lines.
All through the months after the passing of the CAA in Dec '19 until the national lockdown imposed due to Covid-19 on 24th March 2020, citizens organised peaceful demonstrations and sit-in protests across the country to register their democratic dissent against this law. However, our demands still remain unaddressed.
Instead, many who exercised their right to democratic dissent have been framed in fabricated cases and even anti-terror laws. Most still continue to languish behind bars facing a harsh pre-trial incarceration. In a dubious and false narrative, peaceful protestors who raised their voices against this law, particularly from the Muslim community, have been labeled and targetted by the police as 'rioters', 'conspirators' and 'terrorists'.
It is the responsibility of a democratic government to listen to its citizens and engage with voices of dissent. What we have instead encountered with regard to the movement demanding the repeal of CAA is state repression and violence from the ruling government. We once again come together to put forward the following demands to you:
- The repeal of CAA-NPR-NRC and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
- Enquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the Delhi violence ‘20.
- The immediate and unconditional release of all anti-CAA-NPR-NRC protestors and withdrawal of all false cases against them
- Justice and rehabilitation for all victims of the Delhi riots ‘20
- Action against the BJP politicians and RSS workers responsible for hate crimes.
Click here for prominent signatories
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