Academics and Activists petition President against Citizenship Amendment Bill & NRC exclusions

Gang of Raiot has been pilloried regularly by Humanitarian ‘Stalinists’ and National ‘Fascists’ for letting itself be deluded to debate National Register of Citizens(NRC) & Citizenship Amendment Bill. So here we go again, publishing this time a petition by 135 academics and activists about the world after NRC & CAB. Waiting for your responses and engagements. raiotwebzineATgmail.com

PS: RAIOT is not a signatory to this petition. RAIOT is not a person and therefore never signs any petition. So hold your breath. 

 

Hon’ble Shri Ram Nath Kovind
President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi 110004

Date: January 8, 2019

Subject: On the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam & the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016

Respected Rashtrapatiji,

We the undersigned citizens of India hereby seek your urgent intervention on two inter-related matters, which affect the lives of over one million people, perhaps more, in the state of Assam.

On the NRC

We express our deep anguish at the prospect of a very large number of people in Assam being deprived of citizenship and turned into an incarcerated population, as a result of the NRC process initiated at the direction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. It has been reported that out of the 40.07 lakh people excluded from the Final Draft of the NRC, only around 31 lakh people were able to file claims by the deadline of December 31, 2018. Thus, the fate of almost 9 lakh persons has practically been sealed as they are on the verge of losing their citizenship status. Many more may find themselves in a similar situation after the completion of the entire process.

In its judgment that initiated the NRC process, the Supreme Court had directed the central government to frame an adequate deportation mechanism in dialogue with the government of Bangladesh. The Indian government has not raised the deportation issue with its counterpart and has reportedly told the Bangladeshi officials that NRC is an internal Indian matter. In any case, deportation of one million people from Assam to Bangladesh does not appear to be within the bounds of possibility.

Rendering such a huge mass of people stateless would be an unprecedented catastrophe. The looming possibility of one million people – including children and women from poor refugee families – being held in detention centres would be no less inhuman and irrational. Even the possibility of this has pushed a significant number of people in Assam towards suicide. Apart from the human cost, the scale of these detention centres is bound to be an excruciating liability on the public exchequer. The option of turning the excluded persons into non-citizens in perpetuity without any right to participate in the democratic process, is equally inappropriate and counterproductive. This would create a separate category of second class citizenship, vulnerable to myriad kinds of harassment, victimisation and exploitation.

We earnestly urge upon you and the Hon’ble Supreme Court to reconsider the justification behind the NRC process in the light of the visibly calamitous outcomes, and ensure a humane and just result. We believe that granting citizenship to all the NRC excluded persons can provide such a solution.

On the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016

We also note with grave concern that the central government and the ruling party appear to be adamant on passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 in the Parliament. By making non-Muslim “illegal migrants” from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh eligible for Indian citizenship, the amendment explicitly discriminates on the ground of religion and violates the constitutional principle of equality.

The government is disingenuous in justifying this amendment as a means of assisting persecuted minorities in India’s neighbourhood. Had it been sincere, it would have included all persecuted groups, based on any religious belief, race, language or ethnicity and extended its scope beyond only those neighbouring countries with a Muslim-majority population.

The only conceivable purpose that the passage of such a defective Citizenship Amendment Bill can serve at this stage is to enable the ruling party to play sectarian politics in Assam on the eve of the general elections and divide the NRC excluded people on religious lines. We urge upon you as the custodian of the Indian Constitution to advise the central government to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 and abandon such divisive political strategies.

We are hopeful that you will intervene at this crucial juncture to uphold human rights and ensure justice for one million people.

 

Signatories
1 Abhijit Mukhopadhyay  

Economist based in New Delhi

 

2

Abhik Mukherjee Senior Lecturer, Computer Science & Technology, Indian Institute of

Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur

 

3

 

Abusaleh Shariff

Economist, Chief Scholar at the US-India Policy Institute, Washington

DC

 

4

 

Achin Chakraborty

Professor of Economics and Director, Institute of Development Studies

Kolkata

5 Aejaz Ahmad Rather  

General Secretary, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union

6 Akhilesh Yadav  

Vice President, Allahabad University Students’ Union

7 Albeena Shakil  

Associate Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat

8 Amit Bhaduri  

Emeritus Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

9 Amiya Kumar Bagchi  

Emeritus Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

 

 

10 Amlan Dasgupta  

Assistant Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat

11 Amutha Jayadeep  

Joint Secretary, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union

 

12

Anamitra Roychowdhury Assistant Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi

 

13

 

Anand Teltumbde

Senior Professor and Chair Big Data Analytics, Goa Institute of

Management, Goa

 

14

 

Aniket Alam

Associate Professor of History, International Institute of Information

Technology, Hyderabad

15 Anirban Kar  

Associate Professor, Delhi School of Economics

 

16

 

Anuradha Chenoy

Professor (Retd.) of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
17 Anwesha Sengupta  

Assistant Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

18 Arindam Banerjee  

Assistant Professor of Economics, Ambedkar University Delhi

19 Arindam Jana  

Advocate, Calcutta High Court

20 Arindam Roy  

Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

 

21

Atulan Guha Associate Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur
22 Avishek Konar  

Assistant Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat

23 Ayesha Kidwai  

Professor of Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

 

24

Bishnu Pada Mondal General Secretary, Confederation of Central Government Gazetted

Officers’ Organizations, West Bengal

25 Biswajit K.Bora  

Academic and activist, University of Delhi

26 Byasdeb Dasgupta  

Associate Professor of Economics, University of Kalyani

 

27

Debabrata Pal Assistant Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi

28 Debaprasad Maity  

Assistant Professor, IIT Guwahati

29 Debarshi Das  

Associate Professor, IIT Guwahati

 

30

 

Debjani Sengupta

Associate Professor of English, Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi
31 Deborshi Chakraborty  

Research Scholar of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

32 Devika Prasad  

Human Rights Activist and Researcher

 

33

 

Dhananjay Tripathi

Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, South

Asian University, New Delhi

34 Dipa Sinha  

Assistant Professor of Economics, Ambedkar University Delhi

35 Dwaipayan Banerjee  

Researcher and actvist, Kolkata

36 Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya  

Professor of Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

37 Farah Naqvi  

Author and activist

38 Farhat Salim  

Research Scholar, JNU

39 Ghazala Jamil  

Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, JNU

40 Gitanjali Prasad  

Program Manager, Hausla, Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi

41 Gogol Mitra Thakur  

Junior Assistant Professor, Xavier University Bhubaneswar

42 Gorky Chakrabarty  

Associate Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

 

 

43 Harsh Mander  

Director, Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi

 

44

Himanshu Associate Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi

45 Indranil Chowdhury  

Assistant Professor of Economics, PGDAV College, University of Delhi

46 Ipsita Pal  

Scientist

47 Jayati Ghosh  

Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

48 Johanna Lokhande  

Advocate, Delhi High Court

 

49

 

Kamal Mitra Chenoy

Professor (Retd.) of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
 

50

 

Kamal Nayan Kabra

Former Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Public

Administration, New Delhi

 

51

 

Karen Gabriel

Associate Professor of English, St Stephen’s College, University of

Delhi

52 Kasturi Basu  

Researcher and actvist, Kolkata

53 Kingsuk Datta  

General Secretary, Association of Chartered Accountants

 

54

Kunal Chattopadhyay Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
55 Madhu Bhaduri  

IFS (Retd.) and Former Ambassador

 

56

Maidul Islam Assistant Professor of Political Science, Centre for Studies in Social

Sciences, Calcutta

 

57

 

Manan Kumar Mandal

Professor in Bengali & Director School of Humanities, Netaji Subhas

Open University, Kolkata

 

58

 

Manas Kumar Ghosh

Assistant Professor, Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
 

59

 

Manisha Sethi

Associate Professor, Centre for the Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia

Millia Islamia

60 Manjari Katju  

Professor of Political Science, University of Hyderabad

 

61

Manoranjan Mohanty Professor of Social Development, Council for Social Development, New Delh
62 Mansi Sharma  

Activist, New Delhi

63 Maroona Murmu  

Associate Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

64 Mihika Poddar  

Graduate, National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) Kolkata

 

65

Mihir K. Chakraborty Professor (Retd.), Department of Pure Mathematics, University of

Calcutta

 

66

 

Mohinder Singh

Assistant Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru

University, New Delhi

67 Mohsin Alam Bhat  

Assistant Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat

68 Mohsin Raza Khan  

Assistant Professor, Jindal Global University, Sonipat

 

69

 

Murzban Jal

Professor, Centre for Educational Studies, Indian Institute of

Education, Pune

 

70

 

Nabanipa Bhattacharjee

Assistant Professor of Sociology at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi
 

71

Nalini Nayak Associate Professor (Retd) of Economics, PGDAV College, University of Delhi
72 Nandan Nawn  

Associate Professor, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi

73 Nandini Dutta  

Economics Department, Miranda House, University of Delhi

74 Nandini Ghosh  

Assistant Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

 

 

 

75

 

Navsharan Singh

Senior Program Officer, Women’s Rights and Citizenship Program, IDRC, New Delhi
76 Nirmalangshu Mukherji  

Former Professor of Philosophy, University of Delhi

77 Parimal Bhattacharya  

Associate Professor, Maulana Azad College, University of Calcutta

 

78

 

Partha Chatterjee

Professor and Former Director, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
79 Parthapratim Pal  

Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

 

80

 

Partho Sarothi Ray

Associate Professor, Indian Institutes of Science Education and

Research (IISER), Kolkata

 

81

 

Pijush Roy

Assistant Secretary General, Confederation of Central Government

Employee and Workers

82 Pinaki Chaudhuri  

Reader, Theoretical Physics

83 Prabhat Patnaik  

Emeritus Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

84 Pranab Kumar Acharya  

Secretary, All India Civil Accounts Employees Association

85 Prasenjit Bose  

Economist and activist, Kolkata

 

86

Pratim Ghosal Research Scholar of Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
87 Praveen Jha  

Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

88 Prithviraj Guha  

Assistant Professor, Presidency University, Kolkata

89 Pulin B Nayak  

Professor (Retd.) of Economics, Delhi School of Economics

90 R.V. Ramana Murthy  

Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad

 

91

Rafikul Hossain Associate Professor & Head, Department of Bengali Language & Literature, University of Calcutta
92 Rahul Varman  

Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

 

93

Rajarshi Dasgupta Assistant Professor of Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
 

94

 

Ratan Khasnabis

Dean, School of Economics and Commerce, Adamas University West

Bengal

 

95

 

Rita Sinha

Associate Professor (Retd.), Janki Devi Memorial College, University of

Delhi

 

96

Rohit Azad Assistant Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi

97 S.P. Shukla  

IAS (Retd.), Former Union Finance Secretary & Ambassador to GATT

98 Sabyasachi Sen Gupta  

Professor of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

99 Sachin N  

Assistant Professor of English, Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi

100 Sajjad Hassan  

Director, Misaal & Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi

101 Salman Imtiaz  

President, Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union

102 Santanu Basu  

Associate Professor, Panjab University, Chandigarh

103 Sarika Chaudhary  

Vice-President, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union

 

104

 

Saumyajit Bhattacharya

Associate Professor of Economics, Kirori Mal College, University of

Delhi

105 Seema Mustafa  

Editor, The Citizen

106 Senthil Babu  

Researcher, French Institute of Pondicherry

107 Shakuntala Mahanta  

Associate Professor, IIT Guwahati

 

 

 

108

 

Shantanu De Roy

Assistant Professor, Department of Policy Studies, TERI School of

Advanced Studies, New Delhi

109 Sheetanshu Kumar  

Assistant Professor of Hindi, Assam University, Silchar

110 Shiv Sethi  

Sanhati-India

111 Sirisha Naidu  

Associate Professor, Wright State University, USA

 

112

 

Sitala Prasad Roy

Addl. Secretary General, All India Association of Pay And Accounts

Officers (Civil)

113 Smita Gupta  

Independent Researcher, New Delhi

114 Somnath Roy  

Assistant Professor, IIT Kharagpur

 

115

 

Souvik Roy

Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and

Technology, Shibpur

116 Subhanil Chowdhury  

Assistant Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

 

117

 

Subhasis Bandopadhyay

Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian

Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur

118 Subrata Mukherjee  

Associate Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

119 Sudipta Bandyopadhyay  

Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Calcutta

120 Sudipta Bhattacharyya  

Professor of Economics, Visva-Bharati, Shantiniketan

 

121

 

Sukanta Das

Assistant Professor, Department of Information Technology, Indian

Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur

 

122

Sumit Sarkar Associate Professor of Economics, XLRI Xavier School of

Management, Jamshedpur

 

123

 

Sunanda Sen

Former Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi

124 Supurna Banerjee  

Assistant Professor, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata

125 Talha Abdul Rahman  

Advocate, Supreme Court of India

 

126

 

Tanweer Fazal

Associate Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New

Delhi

127 Taposik Banerjee  

Assistant Professor, Ambedkar University Delhi

128 Utsa Patnaik  

Emeritus Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

 

129

 

V. Lenin Kumar

Assistant Professor, School of Government, Maharashtra Institute of

Technology, Pune

 

130

 

Vamsi Vakulabharanam

Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
131 Vebhuti Duggal  

Assistant Professor of Film Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi

 

132

Vibha Iyer Assistant Professor of Economics, Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi
 

133

 

Vijaya Venkataraman

Associate Professor, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of

Delhi

 

134

 

Vikas Bajpai

Assistant Professor, Centre for Social Medicine and Community

Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

135 Xonzoi Borbora  

Associate Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati

 

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