The protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 reached IIT-Bombay campus on Friday with the students of the prestigious institute joining the stir against the controversial Bill.
Students demonstrating on IIT, Bombay campus said, “The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is clearly violating the Assam Accord. If this un-secular and categorically anti-Assamese Bill is passed in Upper House, it will not only destroy the foundation of the Constitution of India but will make the efforts of Assam Accord and NRC pointless and absurd.”
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to the non-Muslims who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.
The students of the institute under the banner of Northeast Collective (NEC), has appealed to every conscious citizen of India to oppose the Bill.
“This Bill advocates to grant citizenship to illegal migrants on the basis of religion, which challenges the ‘right to equality’ (Article 14) provided by Indian constitution. Unfortunately, the Modi Government has been taking peculiar steps to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants on the lines of religion through the CAB,” said Kaushik Talukdar, a student of ITT, Bombay, in a statement.
He said the Bill has been forcefully passed in the Lok Sabha declining the secular character of our Constitution and also disregarding the historic Assam Accord.
“It has the potential to demolish the cultural, social and political identity of the entire Northeast, especially Assam,” Talukdar added.
“We fear that it may also ignite communal hatred among citizens of Northeast. The realization of all these factors has forced the conscious citizens of Northeast along with other parts of India to vehemently stand against the bill and oppose it in its entirety,” he pointed out.
Talukdar further alleged the present government is turning a blind eye to the democratic voices and protests even at the cost of dismantling the constitutional secularism and democratic values of India.