Delhi; 10 Dec 2019 (UMM): Speaking to a gathering at Jawaharlal Nehru University; writer and activist Harsh Mander said that he will declare himse a Muslim if Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) is passed.
Mander was quoted by Ansil KM, a student at JNU, who took to Facebook to publicise the comments, told DoolNews that the former bureaucrat further said he will boycott the NRC process and will not submit any documents.
“If the CAB passed tomorrow, I will declare as a Muslim. Secondly, I won’t submit any documents to prove my identity. Thirdly, if the state put any Muslim in jail, I will be one of them,” Mander was quoted saying on Sunday.
Harsh Mander is a columnist, researcher, activist, and had worked for almost two decades in the Indian Administrative Service in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.
CAB will provide Indian citizenship to Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, Christian and Sikhs from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan but excludes Muslims, who will be sent to detention centres if they could not produce documents to prove their Indian citizenship.
There have been numerous cases in Assam where legal Indian citizens, including a veteran, were detained.
According to DoolNews, opposition parties are calling this bill a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which speaks of the right to equality and it stands contradictory to the values of secularism and quality enshrined by the constitution.
