Indian Recipients Of Magsaysay Award Hit Out At CAA & NRC, Urge PM Modi To Review The Situation

While India continues to witness unprecedented protests and demonstrations against the much controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Indian recipients of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award have joined the chorus and expressed their outrage over the bill that they say is discriminatory and violative.

In a statement, they expressed their deep sense of concern and anguish at the passing into Law, of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 每 and the linkage of the same with the National Register of Citizens.

The statement has been issued by RTI activist Aruna Roy, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in the year 2000; Admiral (retired) Laxminarayan Ramdas, who was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace in 2004; Bezwada Wilson, who was awarded in 2016; P. Sainath, who was awarded in 2007, among others.

They said that both CAA and NRC are ※clearly discriminatory and violative of all the guarantees of the right to equality before the law§ assured to all persons in the Indian Constitution.

In its present form and intent, the recipients highlighted, the Citizenship Amendment Act, together with the proposed NRC all over India, appears to single out one community 每 namely the Muslims.

※The act in its present form links religion with the question of citizenship for the first time in our plural, secular democracy, and is clearly divisive and therefore unacceptable. The outbreak of public protest and widespread demonstrations 每 some of them violent, does not augur well. The CAA and the NRC together have fanned the fires of earlier insecurities in Assam, the North East to entire India now 每 and there is an indefinite curfew and also shutting down of internet services in many states of the North East and elsewhere. Students in their thousands are out on the streets 每 from all accounts with no political party affiliations or pressure,§ they said in the statement.

They urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to kindly review the situation in all seriousness and protect the interests of peace, harmony and the well being of the people of India as well as those desiring to live in this country without any discrimination according to time-honoured tradition of India which was mentioned by Swami Vivekanand in his famous speech at Chicago.

They also said that they do not understand the need for introducing either CAA or NRC at this point in time when there are several other urgent issues on hand.

Other signatories included Shantha Sinha, who was awarded for Community Leadership in 2003; Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna, who was awarded in 2016 for Emergent Leadership; 2009 recipient Deep Joshi and Sandeep Pandey, who was awarded in 2002 for Emergent Leadership.

The controversial legislation, pertaining to citizenship was passed by both houses of Indian parliament, leading to massive hue and cry among citizens. The protests first surfaced in the northeastern regions of the country but have now expanded to almost all its parts. At least five states have outrightly rejected the new law while noted personalities from the fields of arts, culture and the sciences have called it divisive.