Branding Citizenship (Amendment) Bill as 'violation of Article 14', over 1,000 scientists and scholars demand withdrawal of legislation

Over a thousand scientists and scholars have written an open letter to the government demanding the withdrawal of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_7760851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Opposing Citizenship Amendment Bill. Image courtesy News18 Assam North East[/caption] While lauding the Bill for its stated intent of providing refuge to persecuted minorities, the signatories say they “find it deeply troubling that the Bill uses religion as a legal criterion for determining Indian citizenship”. The statement further goes on to note the “careful exclusion” of Muslims from the ambit of the Bill and expresses the fear that this will strain the pluralistic fabric of the country. Noting that the Bill in its present form seems to be in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, the signatories call for the immediate withdrawal of the legislation and seek it replacement with “an appropriate legislation that will address the concerns of refugees and minorities in a non-discriminatory manner”. Here is this full text of the statement: We are a group of Indian scientists and scholars. We are issuing this statement in our personal capacity as concerned citizens to express our dismay at the reported plans to table the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 in the parliament. We do not have access to the exact text of the current version of the Bill. Our statement is based on media reports and the text of the previous version of the Bill that was passed by the Lok Sabha in January 2019. Nevertheless, we feel compelled to issue this statement already at this point of time in view of the reports that the Bill may be tabled in parliament early next week and may be taken up for voting in both houses soon after. We understand that the Bill seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The stated intent of the Bill is to provide refuge to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries. While we support this laudable objective, we find it deeply troubling that the Bill uses religion as a legal criterion for determining Indian citizenship. The idea of India that emerged from the independence movement, and as enshrined in our constitution, is that of a country that aspires to treat people of all faiths equally. The use of religion as a criterion for citizenship in the proposed bill would mark a radical break with this history and would be inconsistent with the basic structure of the constitution. We fear, in particular, that the careful exclusion of Muslims from the ambit of the Bill will greatly strain the pluralistic fabric of the country. We note that article 14 of the Indian constitution prohibits the State from denying “to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” While it is the job of legal experts to determine whether this draft bill violates the letter of the constitution, it seems certain to us that it violates its spirit. For the reasons mentioned above, we call for the immediate withdrawal of this bill and as its replacement request for appropriate legislation that will address the concerns of refugees and minorities in a non-discriminatory manner. List of Signatories (Name and Affiliation) (The institutional affiliations provided here are only for the purpose of identification and do not indicate the official positions of these organizations.)

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