NUJS Kolkata Students And Alumni Dissent Against ‘Intellectual’ Stance, Write Open Letter In Support Of CAA

Over 70 students and Alumni of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, have dissented against the so-called ‘intellectual’ stance on the Citizenship Amendment Act and have written an open letter in its support.

The students note that their opinion will not be a popular one but stated that dissent must not go unnoticed.

Here is the open letter authored by Shoumendu Mukherji and Avnish Kumar Singh:

We, the undersigned, are alumni and law students from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.

As proud Indian citizens and active, established practitioners of the legal fraternity, we voice our support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and condemn the premeditated violent protests and destruction of public property that has ensued from certain motivated sections in the aftermath of the passage of the Amendment Bill in both houses of Parliament.

We take this opportunity to thank our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for ensuring the CAA’s purposeful enactment that is sure to bring much needed relief to persecuted minorities from our neighbouring three countries which have shown a pervasive, systematic and institutionalised track record against such minorities.

We believe that the enactment of the CAA is by no means anti any particular community specifically Muslims and is founded on an intelligible differentia under Article 14 of the Constitution of India having a reasonable nexus with the objective it wishes to achieve, that is protecting life and liberty of oppressed minorities from three neighbouring nations.

Yet, there are certain groups in operation who for their narrow political objectives are instigating sections in our society to create disharmony and disturb peaceful co existence amongst fellow Indians. Such groups are encouraging mindless violence coupled with destruction of public property that is putting the safety of the common Indian at risk.

We are appalled by the logic fronted by those in opposition to the CAA. Though they submit that persecuted communities must be protected, yet their solidarity extends to only one particular community and not for persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians which the CAA aims to protect and harbor. India has in the past opened its doors to Tibetans and Jews. Their fears against NRC are also premature and conjectural.

We appeal to the cynics and pathological naysayers to uphold their democratic right to protest and not misuse their freedoms. Peaceful protests are not opposed. Protests that harm the safety of common citizens must be condemned. Stone pelting and arson can never be considered forms of protests.

Here is the list of signatories and their batch

1. Avnish Kumar Singh - 2021

2. Deepanshu - 2023

3. Vishal Choudhury - 2024

4. Pravar Veer Misra - 2017

5. Saurabh Kumar - 2016

6. Anshum Agarwal - 2024

7. Anshuman Panigrahi - 2021

8. Shoumendu Mukherji - 2014

9. Aditya Kishore - 2024

10. Soummo - 2008

11. Sanya Parmar - 2014

12. Arnab Basu - 2014

13. Amrit Singh - 2019

14. Kavan Patel - 2024

15. Tanish Arora - 2024

16. Shivam Singhania - 2021

17. Anirudh Goyal 2020

18. Akshat Kaushik - 2021

19. Abhinav - 2018

20. Prakhar Maheshwari - 2017

21. Trina Saha - 2010

22. Divyansh Patel - 2024

23. Mehul Sachan - 2021

24. Shantanu - 2022

25. Aishwarya Mudgil - 2017

26. Hardik Batra - 2024

27. Dev Vrat Arya - 2024

28. Surjendu Sankar Das - 2007

29. Rima Patni - 2017

30. Aniket Singh - 2021

31. Anirudh Goel - 2022

32. Ashit Sharma - 2022

33. Ishan - 2024

34. Chinmay Kalgaonkar - 2021

35. Sagnik Saha - 2018

36. Shanaya Agarwal - 2024

37. Nikhil Singh - 2022

38. Sreeja Pal - 2021

39. Aditya - 2020

40. Ishant Jaiswal - 2021

41. Stuti Bhatnagar - 2016

42. Aditya - 2024

43. Kartikey - 2023

44. Gaurav - 2024

45. Laksh Kawatra - 2024

46. Apoorv Jaiswal - 2021

47. Srinivasan Ramaswamy - 2015

48. Udisha - 2024

49. Alex Saha - 2020

50. Pratyush Nigam - 2024

51. Devasheesh Pathak - 2020

52. Sumitava Basu - 2010

53. Dhruv Mairal - 2013

54. Sidharth Kaushik - 2016

55. Shreyas Vijayvargiya - 2014

56. Shantanu Tikadar - 2014

57. Prabal Goel - 2011

58. Tini - 2010

59. Aditya Agrawal - 2020

60. Prakhar Mittal - 2020

61. Sreya Bhar - 2015

62. Sriraman Jha - 2017

63. Hemant Singh Rathore - 2020

64. Rohit Sahay - 2017

65. Aditya Pratap Singh - 2022

66. Dhairyaditya Rathore - N.A.

67. Jay Sayta - 2015

68. Indrajeet Bannerjie - 2021

69. Swastik Parhi - 2023

70. Sumit Kumar Gupta - 2022

71. Yash - 2022

72. Prashanth Mukundan - 2016

73. Disha Chakrabortty - 2021