Huge Number of Muslims in Udupi Protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill

Huge Number of Muslims in Udupi Protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill

Udupi: The Muslim community, Udupi district held a huge protest on December 17 in front of the DC office against the Citizenship Amendment Bill and National Registry of Citizens with members of various organisations taking to the streets opposing the measures of the Union government.

Addressing the protesters thinker Shiva Sundar said it was now important to have all the required documents and papers in place to prove the citizenship and those with issues like spelling mistakes or change in address will be helped by the community.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act seeks to give a pathway for Indian citizenship to immigrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It seeks to reduce the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalisation from 11 years to 5 years for these immigrants. The Act excludes immigrants who are Muslims.

The CAA is a discriminatory bill. It is for the first time that a religious element is being introduced in India’s citizenship law. Under the garb of saving people suffering from religious persecution, the government is doing sinister things. There are existing laws for giving citizenship status, what is the need for new bills for selective religions only? These bills will do no good to the nation. They will divide the country in the name of religion, he said.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has also condemned the fundamentally discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act. The Six Chief Ministers in India have declared that they will not be implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 in their states. CAA violates every one of these fundamental values and spreads the wings of “Hindutva,” or Hindu nationalism, in this so-called secular country by making religion the key to citizenship.

This unconstitutional act also violates and shreds the provisions in the Indian constitution that guarantee citizens’ right to equality, equality before the law and non-discriminatory treatment by the Indian state, he said.

Addressing the gathering Muslim Okkuta president Yaseen Malpe said this country was founded on the principles of diversity. But the people who rule us in Delhi now want to impose one language and one religion on each one of us. But we will resist this. We don’t want one language and one religion, but we want democracy, he said.

Through the Citizenship Act, the centre is conspiring to divide the country on the basis of religion. An attempt is being made to create a rift among people from various communities who were living with love and trust all these years. The act has sent a message that Muslims are lesser citizens in the country. The Act should be withdrawn at the earliest. If they fail to withdraw the Act, then protest will be intensified in the future, he warned.

The protesters, many of whom waved the tricolour flag or held placards criticising the ruling dispensation, joined in shouting slogans against the Act, calling it divisive and discriminatory.

Former Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, Pramod Madhwaraj, former MLA U R Sabhapathi, Former KPCC member Veronica Cornelio and others were addressed the gathering.