Government, Law, Politics, Right watch, Violence-Conflict

Nationwide NRC -The Devil at the Heart of India’s Draconian Digitalization: CP Geevan

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GUEST POST BY C. P.  GEEVAN

NPR and NRC – An Enigmatic Clarification

It was difficult to miss the smugness with which the Home Minister of India (HM) addressed a TV show he had orchestrated through one of the infamous godi (lapdog) media after the central cabinet had approved Rs 39.41 billion for updating the National Population Register (NPR) and Rs 85 billion for Census 2021 operations.The show was meant to dispel the misgivings about the link between NPR and the nationwide NRC—National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC). In meetings across the country and within the Parliament, the HM had been proclaiming or rather threatening to carry out NRIC. However, his enigmatic statements did nothing to allay the grave fears people across India have about NPR, given the government’s obsession and resolve to identify what they call illegal residents. There is no doubt that instead of pressing concerns such as unemployment, alarming fall in per capita consumption and an extraordinary economic slump, of late the single-minded focus of the regime is on dividing the Indian people into different categories, branding, imprisoning and even throwing some out of India. Continue reading Nationwide NRC -The Devil at the Heart of India’s Draconian Digitalization: CP Geevan →

Government, Law, Right watch, Violence-Conflict

Citizens Ask States to Boycott Republic Day Parade

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With the central government denying three states’ – Bengal, Kerala and Maharashtra – tableaux proposals for Republic Day, politics has reached a new low.  There is no doubt that the current struggles against the CAA/NRC and the confrontational stance of the Centre with these governments has a lot to do with this denial. The following is a petition that was started by Not  in My Name Bangalore but it is a broad appeal to all chief ministers, minister and legislators, to boycott this farcical celebration of the Republic while destroying its very spirit.

You can sign the petition here

Dear Chief Ministers, Ministers and Legislators,

We, citizens of India, have watched with horror and no little terror the political developments since 2014, and especially since the elections of 2019. There has been a steady attack on, and erosion of, our constitutional rights in this time.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), in conjunction with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and its precursor, the National Population Register (NPR), is a big blow to the Constitution of India. It is as disastrous and it is unconstitutional, and officially rings in the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra.

There has been staunch resistance to the CAA, most powerfully from student communities across the country. We wholeheartedly support them, in our words and on the streets. What was equally heartening was the pushback from the political establishment in a number of states – in varying degrees, it is true, but still truly a cause for hope. Continue reading Citizens Ask States to Boycott Republic Day Parade →

Government, Law, Right watch, Violence-Conflict

Demonstration in Munich in Solidarity with anti CAA/NRC Struggles: Indians Against Fascism Munich

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Guest post by Indians Against Fascism Munich

On Saturday (21st Dec), a crowd of around one hundred Indians residing in Munich and surrounding assembled at Geschwister Scholl Platz, a square in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register for Citizens (NRC). This place was chosen for its historical significance as it was from here that the White Rose resistance movement against the Nazi regime had started.

Continue reading Demonstration in Munich in Solidarity with anti CAA/NRC Struggles: Indians Against Fascism Munich →

Culture, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Law, Right watch

It’s We the People, not we the Citizens, of India!

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Image courtesy News 18

People, Persons, Citizens

When the idea of citizenship is wielded like a deadly weapon to deprive people of basic rights rather than to empower them, it’s time to think about the basis of rights differently.  While in the Preamble to the Constitution, ‘we the people’ resolve to secure to all its ‘citizens’ justice, liberty, equality and fraternity; Article 14 of the Fundamental Rights ensures equality before the law to all “persons”, not only to citizens.

The people of a land precede the creation of “citizens”, and we the people of India must think seriously at this moment in our history, about how justice is to be secured to all persons, and whether citizenship is an emancipatory idea any longer.

Consider the revealing and tragic irony of one of the accused arrested for his alleged role in violence during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) , in East Delhi’s Seemapuri. Through his counsel, in a Delhi court, he claimed to be a juvenile, and to prove this, produced certificates from the madarsa at which he studies.

Delhi Police, however, claimed that these documents were insufficient to establish his age, and requested permission for a bone ossification test. The counsel of the accused argued that according to central government notifications, madarsa certificates are sufficient to prove age, but the Delhi court permitted police to carry out the ossification test.

Imagine the claim of such a person to  citizenship and to inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC)! Continue reading It’s We the People, not we the Citizens, of India! →

Culture, Debates, Government, Law, Movements, Politics

Statement Issued by ‘Netherlands against CAA’ (Citizenship Amendment Act)

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Guest Post by ‘Netherlands against CAA’

अंतरराष्ट्रीय न्यायालय के सामने विरोध-प्रदर्शन।

(A series of protests have been held in Netherlands against CAA by the Indian diaspora since last few days.  There was a protest at International Court of Justice ( ICJ) based in Hague on 30 th December. It was the fifth protest in last ten days. Pasted below a statement issued on the occasion.)

Statement for Press Release: ICJ Protest

In light of the recent events in India, a group of Indian diaspora residing in the Netherlands, deeply disturbed by the turn of events have decided to protest against the Government of India before the Peace Palace. The protest is directed against the enactment of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (“Act”) followed by gross perpetration of human rights violation against its citizens by the Government of India. Continue reading Statement Issued by ‘Netherlands against CAA’ (Citizenship Amendment Act) →

Government, Law, Right watch, Violence-Conflict

Concerned Delhi University Teachers In Solidarity with the Universities’ Struggles Against CAA/NRC

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Teachers from different colleges and departments of the University of Delhi have expressed shock at the police repression on the struggles of the academic community across different universities in India and issued the following statement in support of the students.
We, concerned teachers of Delhi University, extend solidarity to the struggling academic communities of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University (DU), and other central and regional universities that have borne the brunt of police excesses these past few days. We also express condemnation of the authoritarian and undemocratic manner in which the current dispensation is using all kinds of power to crush the basic rights of people to peacefully protest and question unjust laws. The closing off of metro stations, arterial roads, blocking of mobile networks, en masse detention of citizens who are peacefully gathering to protest, growing number of FIRs, 5000 plus preventive detentions, consistent heckling of protesters, including attack on public property during police raids, etc. are shocking and reflect blatant misuse of state power. The shameful act of interrupting media interactions / press briefings of vocal scholars/academicians through coercive police action is nothing short of sinister. The 25 plus and rising death toll of protesters, as well as the reports of police raids of Muslim localities, households and institutions is highly condemnable.

Continue reading Concerned Delhi University Teachers In Solidarity with the Universities’ Struggles Against CAA/NRC →

Centre watch, Culture, Government, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Your Government Wants Revenge From You

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Uttar Pradesh is dealing with CAA as it dealt with crime : encounters

Uttar Pradesh is dealing with CAA as it dealt with crime

Image Courtesy: PTI

Seventy-six year old advocate Mohammad Shoaib fought to have innocents branded as terrorists under repressive laws released, and risked multiple assaults by right-wing lawyers as he took these cases through various courts in Uttar Pradesh. His contemporary, former police officer SR Darapuri became a human rights activist and writer after he retired. Neither would have imagined one day they would be lodged in jail, charged with rioting and creating disaffection, under similarly draconian laws.

But as everybody knows, in Uttar Pradesh today Shoaib and Darapuri are not exceptions. They are just two notable figures among the hundreds of socio-political activists, writers and cultural workers—not to forget ordinary folks—who have been packed into various state prisons for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). These protests are going on across the country, and started peaking after 19 December, when students spontaneously poured out in the streets against the new law and the proposed policy.

Uttar Pradesh’s administration has come down on those protesting with a heavy hand. The Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, tried to project the opposition to the bill as a purely ‘law and order issue: therefore, he sought to justify seeking “revenge” against those who damaged public or private property.

( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/your-government-wants-revenge-you)

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