Caravan News
NEW DELHI — As anger and heat are building up against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and announcement of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the country, prominent Muslim groups have decided to launch a joint struggle against the Narendra Modi government’s moves. Realising the dangerous fallouts of the new law, these groups said the new amendment to the Citizenship law was anti-Constitution and illegal and will not be acceptable to the society.
On the call from Jamaat-e-Islami Hind president Syed Sadatullah Hussaini, a host of Muslim leaders gathered at the JIH headquarters on Monday to deliberate on the consequences of the CAA and the government move to extend the process of the NRC nationwide from its base in Assam. They also took strong note of the brutal police action against students of the Jamia Millia Islamia, AMU and in other educational institutions where students were protesting in a peaceful and democratic manner.
The meeting passed a few resolutions including one on the police excesses on students and condemning the new law on citizenship. A resolution read: “We stoutly denounce the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and regard it as an assault on the fundamental values of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution does not allow any discrimination on the basis of religion. We appeal to all peace-loving people to oppose this law and put pressure on the government to withdraw it.”
In another resolution, the meeting deplored the police attack on the Jamia Millia, AMU and other institutions. Lauding the patience and restraint of the students despite the police provocations, the resolution extended full support to the protesting students. “This meeting strongly condemns the brutality of the Delhi Police, which assaulted the protesters, barged into the library and hostels, and beat up the hapless students. We demand an independent judicial probe into the police atrocities and punishment to the guilty police officers.”
The meeting also demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the Jamia and AMU incidents and the role of the police.
The new citizenship law, passed by Parliament on Tuesday, will grant citizenship to only non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who now live in India. The new law has removed several restrictions including requirement of document to grant citizenship to applicants from Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi communities. Muslims are apprehensive that, when the government starts the nationwide NRC process, large numbers of community members will be detained for lack of residency documents while others would face no problem, thanks to the new law.
The meeting also urged those agitating against the CAA to be cautious and ensure that anti-social elements did not infiltrate the scene and turn the peaceful protests violent.
A resolution passed by the meeting on organizing a nationwide movement against the CAA and NRC read: “This meeting resolves that we the participants will join hands against this anti-Constitutional law and launch a joint struggle. We will take along all the peace-loving people from other religions too, and form a coordination committee which would plan the strategy to take the movement forward.”
The meeting held after Jamia and AMU witnessed brutal police attacks. Besides Hussaini, the participants of the meeting prominently included Maulana Mahmood Madani (Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind M), Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan (Ittehad-e-Millat Council), Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan (Delhi Minorities Commission), Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam (All India Milli Council), Navaid Hamid (All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat), Maulana Shees Taimi (Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees), Dr. SQR Ilyas (All India Muslim Personal Law Board), Mohammad Jafar (Jamaat-e-Islami Hind), Maulana Niyaz Ahmad Farooqui ((Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, M), Dr. Syed Zafar Mahmood (Zakat Foundation of India), Kamal Farooqui (All India Muslim Personal Law Board), Mujtaba Farooque (Jamaat-e-Islami Hind) and Abdul Jabbar Siddiqui (Jamaat-e-Islami Hind).
