By Dr. C. Sadasiva
The North-East is boiling with
people there on the streets protesting over the ill-thought out amendment to
the Citizenship Act. It is not just the people of north-eastern states but all
the democratic and secular minded people of India are genuinely concerned at
the way the amendment was brought about which goes against the basic spirit of
our Constitution.
Nation State as a concept
evolved in Europe and with Bismark unifying German people, the concept started
turning into a reality. American and French revolutions further consolidated
the process. Nations emerged gradually all over the world and this process
gained rapid momentum with the decolonization and dismantling of erstwhile
imperialist regimes. Protest over Amendment to Citizenship Act Along with
nations came the concept of citizen and conditions for being recognised as a
citizen in a given nation.
Well, the very recent case of
Choksi becoming a citizen of a far away country brought to light that one can
even ‘buy’ citizenship in some countries and perhaps if one is rich enough one
may become citizen of one or two such countries simultaneously. But by and
large this is not the case with a large number of countries in the world.
There are definite conditions,
rules and processes involved in granting citizenship to those who seek or in
resolving any dispute regarding one’s citizenship. In our country we have one
case of natural citizenship. All those who are born in this country have a
natural claim to be citizens of our country irrespective of one’s religion,
caste, gender or race. Then there is the case of people who come as migrants
for various reasons and opt for various reasons some times beyond their own
control. In this case too, while deciding to grant or not to grant citizenship
to any one, his/her religion is not at all a consideration in principle and as
per the law.
The Modi government is trying
to change the very secular character of this principle by introducing the
religion as a criterion. Shamelessly Amit Shah announced in a public rally in
Bengal that Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists have no threat to their safety
and security in our country. He very carefully and deliberately avoided
mentioning Muslims in that list. The sinister intentions of communal fascist
RSS-BJP regime thus became very clear in the attempt to amend the Citizenship
Act.
Naturally people of
north-eastern states are angry. All these states are inhabited by people with
distinct and unique cultural and ethnic characters. And very naturally they are
keen to preserve and protect that uniqueness and the whole country recognises
this unity in diversity as famously put by Jawaharlal Nehru. By safeguarding
the diversity only the unity of our country can be secured.
The Communist Party of India
strongly opposed the ugly and sinister act of BJP communal fascist government.
In Parliament the CPI demanded that the proposed amendment should be sent to a
select committee. It also sought wide public debate on the issue.
CPI in Manipur is leading a
massive struggle against the amendment. CPI national council secretary D Raja
MP visited Manipur and addressed a massive public protest. He said
categorically that the amendment is against the very basic secular spirit of
the Constitution of India and goes against the vision of India as envisioned by
Gandhi, Nehru and B R Ambedkar.(IPA
Service)
The post Massive Protests Over Amendment To Citizenship Act appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
