Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill is highly discriminatory, against spirit
of the Constitution: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
Addressing a
press conference here today, JIH Secretary General Muhammad Salim Engineer said:
“This bill is highly discriminatory and against the spirit of the Constitution of
India and as it proposes to grant citizenship to people from Bangladesh,
Pakistan and Afghanistan according to their religion. Thus Hindus from Bangladesh
would be accepted but not Muslims’’.
Regarding the
NRC issue the Secretary General said: “We are deeply concerned with the
publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Thus far the
NRC has held 1.9 crore people of the 3.3 crore applications to be valid and
bonafide citizens of India. The fate of 1.4 crore people still hangs in
balance. The final list is expected to come out by end of July 2018. According
to the Assam Accord signed in 1985, anyone who entered the state after 24 March
1971 is considered an illegal resident. However, if a person is accused of
being a foreigner, then the onus of proof (to prove citizenship) lies on the
accused. But genuine citizens who are impoverished and could not maintain
proper records are impacted and now face the brunt of being branded as
foreigners. Most are declared foreigners due to minor inaccuracies in their
documents. The number of those declared as foreigners has increased
dramatically after the BJP government came to power in Assam. Jamaat expects
that the government agencies entrusted with the task of preparing the list of
legal citizens shall discharge their duty diligently and without bias. Those in
power in the state and the Center should also ensure that communal elements are
reined in and law and order is maintained in Assam. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind was
part of a fact finding team consisting of eminent journalists and human rights
activists that recently visited Assam to find out how the NRC process was being
implemented. Its recommendations would
be released in a separate press conference’’.
Earlier, President
of Jamaat, Maulana Syed Jalaluddin when
asked about the reported event of BJP Minister Jayant Sinha felicitating
‘gau-rakshaks’ convicted for Ramgarh lynching, said: “such events should be
condemned as it gives encouragement to those who take the law in their hands. Jamaat
demands that the Central government and the state governments must put an end
to such incidents of lawlessness and act seriously in maintaining law and order
as well as communal harmony in the country which is the basic duty of any
government.’’
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in its press note, issued
in the press conference, expressing anguish at the growing lawlessness in the
country with a spate of lynching incidents all over the country, said, “Till
the 1st July there took place at least 16 cases of lynching since 10th
May causing 22 deaths. Jamaat feels that since the last four years hate crimes
and lynching against Muslims, Dalits and anybody suspected to be a criminal, have
increased a lot. Anti-social and criminal elements are becoming daring and
emboldened because no serious action has been taken against them and this is
creating fear in the common citizens.”
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has expressed
deep concerns at a government proposal to scrap the University Grants
Commission (UGC) and replace it with the Higher Education Council of India (HECI).
“Jamaat agrees with civil society and others from the academia that by
withdrawing financial powers from the regulator (UGC) and handing them over to
the central government, and by giving the HECI unilateral and absolute powers
to authorize, monitor, shut down, and recommend disinvestment from Higher
Educational Institutions, the Draft Bill will expose higher education in the
country to ideological manipulation, loss of much needed diversity as well as
academic standards, fee hikes, and profiteering. It seems to concentrate
greater direct control of the government thereby undermining the autonomy and
democratic foundations of the UGC,” reads Jamaat’s statement.
Jamaat has also opposed to the
proposed lateral entry at the level of joint secretary into the administrative
service. It said, “This will create dissatisfaction among the ranks of civil
servants and reduce efficiency as two cadres with completely different skill
sets, experience and training will be brought together. It will badly affect
the share of backward classes and the SC/STs into the civil services and in
governance and policy making.”
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