Maharashtra IG Abdul Rehman resigns over controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill

Mumbai: Following IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, who resigned over the abrogation of Article 370, another civil servant has taken a strong stand against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019. Maharashtra Inspector-General of Police, Abdur Rehman, resigned on Wednesday protesting passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill by the Parliament.

The IPS officer announced his resignation on Twitter, Minutes before the Bill was cleared in Rajya Sabha. In his statement, Rahman said, “The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 is against the basic feature of the Constitution. I condemn this Bill. In civil disobedience, I have decided not to attend office from tomorrow. I am finally quitting the service.”

He added that the Bill is against the religious pluralism of India. “I request all justice-loving people to oppose this Bill democratically. It runs against the very basic feature of the Constitution.”

The controversial Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha with a vote of 125 against 99, two days after it sailed through the lower house.

Abdur Rehman was serving as head of the investigation wing of Maharashtra Human Rights Commission earlier this year. Rahman has been working in different positions in Maharashtra over the past 21 years. He was vocal about the Bill, ever since it was introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday.

“The #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 violates Article 14 of the Constitution and against its basic feature. It discriminates persons based on religion. It’s an act to demonise 200 million Muslims in India. We condemn,” he had tweeted.

Meanwhile, official sources say Rehman has applied for voluntary retirement in August and was awaiting a decision for the application.