New Delhi: Amid the ongoing nationwide stir against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, a group of academics, intellectuals and research scholars Saturday issued a statement in support of the law.
“We believe that CAA is in perfect sync with the secular constitution of India as it does not prevent any person of any religion from any country, seeking Indian citizenship,” the statement said.
Academics who have signed the statement include individuals from eminent institutes like Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Institutes of Technology, and the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
Well-known Indian signatories of the statement include Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, and analysts and researchers Sushant Sareen, Anirban Ganguly and Abhijit Iyer-Mitra.
The support for the law also came from individuals from international institutes including Princeton University, University of Oxford, Politecnico di Milano-Milan, University of Warwick and Imperial College London.
An atmosphere of fear and paranoia is being created in the country by “deliberate obfuscation and fear-mongering” which has lead to violence in several parts of the country, the statement said.
It urged every section of the society to exercise restraint and refuse to fall into the trap of “propaganda, communalism, and anarchism”.
The statement was signed in their personal capacity, the academics noted.
The move has come amid protests across the country in which over 10 people have died so far. Protesters are seeking a rollback of the law that was passed in the Parliament earlier this month.
The law provides for citizenship to six non-Muslim communities from the neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
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‘Satisfied’
In their statement, the academics and intellectuals also claimed that CAA does not prevent Ahmadis, Hazaras, Balochs or other denominations and ethnicities from the three countries to seek citizenship through regular processes.
It added that the signatories are satisfied with the way the concerns of the Northeast states have been heard and are being addressed appropriately.
Assam and Tripura saw widespread protests over ethnic lines after the passage of the law.
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