Public concerns on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC)
Bady
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What follows below is a compilation of concerns both for and against CAA & NRC from different people with different opinions. For Indian Pirates, before making a public statement on these issues, it's important to answer these first.
On granting citizenship based on religions from selected countries:
Against: Only Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities from the neighboring Muslim majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are considered while Muslims are avoided. This is against secularism, Article 14 and the spirit of the Indian Constitution because it discriminates people based on religion.
For: This is not against Article 14 because it permits classification, so long as it is 'reasonable' and the reason here's the protection of persecuted minorities of the neighboring theocratic states based on historical reasons. If it was non-secular and against Indian Constitution then Supreme Court would have issued a stay, but it didn't.
On the government's intent to protect the persecuted minorities:
Against: If protection of persecuted minorities was the actual intent, then the refugees consisting of Rohingyan muslims of Myanmar, Ahmadiyya muslims of Pakistan, Tamil Elams of Sri Lanks and Atheists are all persecuted minorities and should have covered under CAA but they aren't.
For: Rohingyans and Tamil people of Sri Lanka have found to be associated with extremist armed forces and are hence dangerous to be included in CAA. (Haven't heard proper arguments justifying why Ahmadiyya's and Atheist's are excluded, comment if you've came across of any).
On the protests against CAA and NRC:
Against: NRC in Assam should be considered as a special case based on historical reasons, it doesn't mean that Nation-wide NRC will be same as the way it is proposed in Assam. Current protests are led by extremist islamic groups to show their strength using violence, either directly or by indirectly influencing a larger group of people via propagation of unnecessary FUD.
For: Protests are led by people from different backgrounds and beliefs, including students, to protect the values of Indian Constitution such as equality, secularism and prohibition of discrimination.
Pirate Praveen Tue 31 Dec 2019 9:18AM
This talk by Kannan Gopinathan is powerful https://invidio.us/watch?v=DBiIhhKk3_8 we should include a link to this talk in our statement.
Pirate Praveen Sat 4 Jan 2020 6:19PM
@Kannan V M shared this draft statement in our matrix group https://pad.disroot.org/p/caastatement please review it and suggest changes. You can review on the link given earlier as that has options to highlight parts of the statement and comment on it.
We, Indian Pirates, believe every human being has equal dignity and rights. We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy the right to life, liberty and security of person.
In India, Citizenship allows a person to be part of its democratic framework and enables them to enjoy civil rights guaranteed by constitution for Citizens of India. Being able to take part in the system that designs the laws of the society we belong to is the most essential of them. Thus Citizenship is an important identity for a person to enjoy their most fundamental right, domestic and international, with respect to the country a person reside.
Citizenship is a privilege and it provides special benefits for those who enjoy it. However, this privilege is susceptible for exploitation. It is necessary to put reasonable restrictions on granting citizenship to safeguard from these exploitation.
It is our responsibility to make definitions for what should be a reasonable restriction, which should be a balance between human rights and our nation's interests.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, as it is enacted, can not considered to be in accordance with either Human Rights or Nation's Interests. We believe this is an attempt to convert a human rights issue into a religious issue, in order to induce a dual standard in the rule of law based on religion.
We understand the act itself is in contradiction with article 14 of the constitution which promises equality before law and it challenges the basic features of constitution, equality and secularism. We recognize the ill effects of this act can create a scar on our fraternity. With above said reasons, we believe the act is unconstitutional and Indian Pirates rejects the Citizenship Amendment Act 2016.
As an alternative to this act, Indian pirate suggests to form a definition for refugee in accordance to UNHCR and to derive a impartial legislation to relax the process for citizenship for refugees.
A NRC with the backing of CAA, as defined by the Home minister of Union government, will be discriminatory and will change the demographics of our country. We believe such a NRC is not in line with principles put forward by our constitution and we urge the people of India to not to coorporate with the attempts to impliment such a citizenship register.
We believe the undergoing NPR can be used to create NRC and we urge the people of India to not to coorporate with data collection for NPR. We congradulate those states which announced indefinite halt on NPR.
We recognize and condemn BJP's attempts to divide the nation in the name of religion and spreading messages of hatred. We condemn Prime Minister of India for misleading the people of India and we urge Union government to answer the queries of the people about CAA,NRC and NPR through a credible source.
We condemn the attempts to silence the voice of people of India by imposing 144, travel restrictions and through internet shutdowns. We believe this is an attack on rights promised by Article 19 of Constitution of India. Internet is a basic necessity which is needed for the proper functioning of a society; depriving of access to internet is not only violation the right to expression, but also is against right to life and liberty.
We condemn the excessive and disproportionate use of violence by police. We observe police itself is breaking the law and protocols to incite violence on people.[ We condemn the unlawful activities by the police and ask for a special investigation on the atraocities by police.] We condemn the unlawful detentions and the restriction of lawful rights for the detainees.
A detention center for those who are not listed in NRC with presence of CAA would be a Muslim detention center, this is grim reminder of what nai germani did to Jews. We believe detention centers are a violation to human rights
We, Indian Pirates observe this citizenship register as an effort by BJP and RSS to convert Republic of India into a fascist hindutva rashra. This act is not an issue related to some minority religions of India, but an open attack on the constitutional values that protects our rights. We believe defending our constitution and its principles are our duty. We, Indian Pirates urge the people of India to occupy the streets to show your protest and take part in politics and elections in order to protect our constitution.
Bady Wed 8 Jan 2020 3:04PM
hi all, the etherpad doc has changed since the above version was posted here. are we waiting for anything more to be discussed? is there any part that needs further clarification/modification? if not, we can move forward with next steps for publishing the statement.
Pirate Praveen Wed 8 Jan 2020 3:12PM
Did we respond to all the comments there?
Bady Wed 8 Jan 2020 3:20PM
it'll be better if those who raised the issues verify it themselves whether they have been resolved and reply with proper comments as there's no way to mark as resolved in etherpad.
Pirate Praveen Wed 8 Jan 2020 3:40PM
at least for us, we need to confirm if we addressed all issues.
Pirate Praveen Wed 8 Jan 2020 3:58PM
How about we have a scheduled online meeting and finalize it?
Kannan V M Mon 13 Jan 2020 7:21AM
may be tonight?
Pirate Praveen Mon 13 Jan 2020 9:08AM
Works for me. How about 8 pm? May be keep another slot for tomorrow in case someone miss today's slot (as it is a short notice). Can you open a poll and share in matrix group?
Pirate Praveen · Tue 31 Dec 2019 10:10AM
Relevant part from FAQ