Hindutva fundamentally incompatible with secularism: Prof Apoorvanand

Visakhapatnam: Hindutva is fundamentally incompatible with secularism, said J Apoorvanand, Professor in Delhi University. He was speaking at the eighth State conference (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) of Human Rights Forum (HRF) held at Amalapuram on Saturday.

Criticising the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said it contradicts India's rich history of pluralism which guarantees equality before law irrespective of faith. He said in conjunction with National Register of Citizens (NRC), which the BJP proposes to make a nationwide process, the government was creating a religious test for citizenship that would exclude millions of Muslims.

"This Act is brazenly discriminatory as it singles out a particular community for hostile treatment," he said, terming the CAA and NRC as an assault on the Indian Constitution.

Further, Apoorvanand stated, "Though the objective to provide refuge to the persecuted is a welcome move, the use of religion for bestowing Indian citizenship is abhorrent. The idea of India that emerged from our freedom struggle and whose best values are enshrined in our Constitution are under sustained attack by the forces of Hindutva."

E Manohar of Swaraj Abhiyan spoke on the rights of sexual minorities. "Diversity and sexual preferences have to be acknowledged and respected as a right. The recent Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 is a flawed and regressive piece of legislation.

The Act betrays a basic lack of comprehension about the gender and its complexity as it does not address the concerns of those intended for."Social rights activist M Pavan Kumar spoke on the rights of disabled persons.