Citizen's Amendment Act unconstitutional, violates Art. 14 & 21

Nampally: Considering the earlier Supreme Court judgements, the Citizen's Amendment Act (CAA) which violates the Article 14 and Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty), the court shall interfere and declare it 'unconstitutional', observed former high court Justice, B Chandra Kumar.

At a round table conference organised at Siasat Office on Saturday evening, Chandra Kumar, who was the chief guest, said that those who had drafted the Constitution did not provide any scope for this kind of law. It directly contradicts the core values on which Constitution stands and which says that there shall no discrimination, in the name of caste, region, religion and sex. He found that like never before conferment of Citizenship was being made based on the religion. "I hope that Supreme Court will interfere and will declare it unconstitutional, as it violates Article 14 and Article 21," he added.

BAMCEF (All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation) president, Waman Meshram called upon for putting a unified fight against the divisive forces, which were attempting to damage the pillars, on which the secular structure of nation stands. He said that unless a concrete plan of action with a clear strategy is made, the sangh and its outfits cannot be countered and would continue to create fear amongst Muslims and Dalits.

Siasat Editor Zahid Ali Khan who presided over the programme felt that during the 800 years of rule, the Muslim rulers failed to accommodate men from lower castes and all those who served as Ministers and even Army commanders were from upper castes. "Had the rulers of the day taken services of Dalits and other backward castes, their goodwill would have provided support and morale to Muslims now," he lamented.

He called upon the community not to panic, as an exercise like NRC in Assam cost the government expenditure of some Rs 1600 crore and if similar exercise is conducted in all the States it would run into thousands of crores and in present state of economy it was hard to materialize. Nevertheless, he said that a representation would be made to the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the coming days. Social activist Sambasiva Rao held that the government pushed the CAA in haste to accommodate those Bengali speaking Hindus in Assam who were listed out during NRC process. He explained that Christians were included in CAA, so as to not to offend Christian majority states in North East region.

V Sandhya, National Convenor of POW (Progressive Organisation of Women), Prof Anwar Khan, Devendra of Telangana Praja Front, Maulana Naseeruddin, Muneeruddin Mujahid, OU student leader, G Ravi, Convenors of SC,ST,BC, Muslim Front, Sanaullah Khan and Hayat Hussain Habeeb took part in the programme.