Jamaat-e-Islami to oppose NRC and CAB, dubs them ‘deliberate diversion’

Hyderabad: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has resolved to oppose the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). It dubbed the whole thing as a futile exercise and “deliberate diversion” of priorities by the government to hide its failures.

“Implementation of NRC in Assam showed the futility of the exercise. Moreover, putting 135 crore people to the difficulty is unjustified when there are procedures and laws available to identify foreigners and illegal immigrants,” said JIH Telangana President, Hamid Mohammed Khan.

He told presspersons here on Tuesday that the JIH would strongly oppose both the NRC and CAB if the government insisted on its implementation. The opposition parties, he hoped, would play their role in the Parliament and stop these pointless initiatives.

Expressing concern at the difficulties faced by people in Assam, he said the government had no idea what to do with the two million people who did not figure in the final NRC list. Repeated assertions of four million infiltrators proved wrong. Nation-wide exercise of NRC would cause immense problems, especially to minorities and marginalised sections of society. If the government had doubts about the status of a citizen, it must prove that he/she was not a legal resident and not the other way round. Khan asked people not to panic by the statement of the Union Home Minister and urged them to get their documents updated.

Referring to the CAB, he said it was against the very spirit of the Constitution besides being discriminatory. The Bill proposed to grant citizenship only to Hindus coming to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and not to other religious communities. Furthermore, the Bill went against the basic idea of India being an inclusive, diverse, secular and democratic nation. “It is a part of the agenda to polarise people on communal lines. I am sure people will not fall prey to such divisive politics,” Khan said.

He also condemned the police crackdown on protesting JNU students. There were reports of many students and media persons receiving injuries in the lathi charge by Delhi police and CRPF. There was no place for the use of such excessive force against the student community in a democratic setup. The JIH leader felt that the students’ demand for rollback of the hiked hostel fee was genuine. The government must provide quality education at an affordable cost to all sections of society and not run away from its responsibilities. JIH is of the view that the government ought to increase the minimum allocation to education to 6 per cent of the GDP.