Former NAC Member Harsh Mander Says He Will Register Himself As A Muslim To Protest Against Citizenship Amendment Bill

A former member of Sonia Gandhi run thinktank National Advisory Council (NAC) and social actvisit Harsh Mander has said that he will officially register as a Muslim in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The Lok Sabha, in a late night sitting on Monday (9 December), passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill amidst a vote of 311 in its favour and 80 against it out of 391 members who were present and voting.

Mander previously worked in the Indian Administrative Service, serving in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for almost two decades. He was the Additional Collector of Indore during 1984 anti-Sikh riots after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Indore, along with Jabalpur and Bilaspu,r were worst affected cities in Madhya Pradesh during the riots as Congress workers went on a rampage targetting Sikh community.

After 22 years in service, Mander officially quit the IAS claiming that he was troubled by the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat

Mander was handpicked as a member of National Advisory Council by the council President Sonia Gandhi in June 2010.

Mander currently serves as the director at the Centre for Equity Studies, a ‘think tank’ founded by him that claims to focuses on public policy for the poor.

Mander courted huge controversy for funding the ‘thinktank’ through a grant by a Church backed organisation DanChurch Aid ,an entity directly connected to Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mander's other funder, Partnership Foundation, runs homes in India called "Missionary Sisters Servants of Holy Spirit"

Mander is also an advisory board member of Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros. It operates as the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights.

Earlier this year, Supreme Court had dismissed an application filed by Mander seeking the recusal of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi from the case related to the treatment of inmates in Assam’s detention centres.

Mander had moved Supreme Court citing what he claimed was the deplorable conditions of Assam’s Detention Camps.

Assam runs detention camps to house people who have been declared foreigners by Foreigners’ Tribunals pending deportation or bail. Presently there are six detention camps operating out of makeshift facilities in local prisons in Dhibrugarh, Jorhat, Goalpara, Silchar, Tezpur and Kokrajhar.

Mander sought the recusal of Justice Gogoi claiming that comments and observations made by CJI during the proceedings of the case raised serious apprehensions in the mind of the applicant that there is a possibility of bias affecting the outcome of the petition. Justice Gogoi hails from Assam.