More Than 1,000 Renowned Academicians Come Out In Support Of CAA

More than 1,000 academicians, scientists and research fellows have come out in support of the recently legislated Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.

The list mainly comprises Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors of various universities.

Not just from the capital city of Delhi and other major economic epicentres, support to the Act has been pledged by practitioners and students of law from non-metropolitan cities and the hinterland as well, thus showing that the balance of support tilts in favour of the said legislation.

Among those supporting the Act are:

1) Anand Ranganathan, JNU
2) Prof Shri Prakash Singh, DU
3) Kanchan Gupta, Senior Journalist
4) Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, Senior Fellow, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies
5) J Sai Deepak, Advocate, Supreme Court
6) Guru Prakash, Department of Law, Patna University
7) Professor Ainul Hasan, Dean SLL & CS, JNU
8) Meenakshi Jain, Senior Fellow, ICSSR
9) Jiten Jain, Honorary Professor, Amity University
10) Dr Geeta Bhatt, Bhaskaracharya College, DU
11) Prof Chandan Chaube, DU
12) Prof Ajay Dubey, JNU
13) Pranav Kumar, JNU
14) Shubhendu Anand, Chevening Scholar, Advocate Supreme Court
15) Anil Kumar, Shri Ram College of Commerce, DU.

The full list can be downloaded here.

The statement of support is below.

Statement in Support of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019

We, a group of academicians, intellectuals and research scholars are issuing this statement in our personal capacity in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.

The act fulfils the long-standing demand of providing refuge to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Ever since the failure of the Liaquat-Nehru pact of 1950, various leaders and political parties like the Congress, CPI (M) etc, cutting across the ideological spectrum, have demanded the grant of citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh who mostly belong to the Dalit castes.

We congratulate the Indian parliament and government for standing up for forgotten minorities and upholding the civilizational ethos of India; providing a haven to those fleeing religious persecution.

We also note with satisfaction that the concerns of the North-Eastern states have been heard and are being addressed appropriately.

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.

Nor does it change the criteria of citizenship in any way; merely providing a special expedited redress, under special circumstances, for minorities fleeing religious persecution from three specific countries i.e. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

It does not in any way prevent Ahmadis, Hazaras, Baloch or any other denominations and ethnicities, from these same three countries, seeking citizenship through regular processes.

We also note with deep anguish, that an atmosphere of fear and paranoia is being created in the country through deliberate obfuscation and fear-mongering leading to violence in several parts of the country.

We appeal to every section of society to exercise restraint and refuse to fall into the trap of propaganda, communalism and anarchism.

RSVP

Swadesh Singh, DU 9560350461

Abhinav Prakash, DU 7678567357