- - Pinarayi Vijayan
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act has
imperilled the nation’s constitutional values, and no one can afford to be
silent.
India’s secular structure faces a
profound crisis. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, must be rejected for
three reasons. First, it is against the letter and spirit of our Constitution.
Second, it is divisive, deeply discriminatory and violative of human rights.
Third, it seeks to impose the politics and philosophy of Hindutva, with its
vision of a “Hindu nation”, on our entire people and on the basic structure of
our polity. Our constitutional values are in peril, and no person who has faith
in our democracy can afford to be silent and uninvolved in what is happening
around us.
Against common citizenship
Let us understand each of these three
points. The first is that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is against the letter
and spirit of our Constitution. Articles 5 to 11 of the Constitution deal with
citizenship, and the Citizenship Act, 1955, lays down criteria for citizenship
based on birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, and citizenship by
incorporation of territory. By setting new criteria, the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act goes against the premise of common citizenship regardless of
differences of caste, creed, gender, ethnicity and culture. Further, Article 14
of the Constitution lays down that the “State shall not deny to any person
equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the
territory of India”. It bears emphasis that Article 14 applies not only to
citizens but to “all persons within the territory of India”.
What do we mean by the spirit of the
Constitution? We associate the drafting of our Constitution with the rich
debates of the Constituent Assembly, and the wisdom of its members, amongst
whom Babasaheb Ambedkar stands tall. It is often not recognised, however, that
it was the heroism of millions of unsung freedom fighters that made our
Constitution a reality. These men and women, who came from the working class,
peasantry, and socially marginalised groups — whatever their religious
persuasion — challenged the colonial authorities in their struggle for human rights
and economic justice. This struggle had broader aims than the overthrow of
colonial rule. These torchbearers of modern Indian history played a crucial
role in creating the demand for social justice, and a Constitution with
democratic and secular values in a society in which discrimination and
inequality were deeply ingrained. Although the framing of the Constitution did
not mark the end of the struggle for civil liberties and for an egalitarian
society, it, nevertheless, was a milestone in our history.
Our freedom fighters were also
conscious that theirs was a struggle for a society free of caste and religious
deprivation and discrimination, and free of the deep social and economic
inequalities that characterise Indian society. This was true of the manifestos
of the Left from the early 1920s; this aspiration was also reflected in the
resolution of the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress in 1931, held
after the execution of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. Confronted by the radical
mass upsurge of the time, the Congress passed resolutions on the freedom of
speech, press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and equality before
the law.
The national movement in British
India was further strengthened by movements in the erstwhile princely States.
Our forebears dreamt of an independent India where communal prejudice would be
alien to the polity. It is not surprising that the threat to those parts of our
Constitution that defend secularism, democracy, social equality, federalism,
and individual and social diversity, should come from that section of the
polity that did not participate in the freedom struggle. The surrender to
British imperialism by the precursors of today’s forces of Hindutva, is a
chapter of India’s history that is cast in stone. No amount of denial can
change that unheroic past.
Violative of rights
Our second point is that the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act is divisive, deeply discriminatory and violative of
human rights. As I have written before, our national unity was won through
struggle; the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is one of the many threats to its
survival. Our hard-won Constitution recognises individual and social
differences, and that we must weave the cord of unity by creating a sense of
belonging and inclusiveness for all.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act
attempts to create and deepen communal division and social polarisation in the
country. The Act gives eligibility for citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists,
Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who
entered India on or before December 31, 2014, and specifically excludes Muslims
from that list. In granting citizenship on the basis of religion, it
discriminates against Muslims and rejects the basic concept of secularism.
That the Citizenship (Amendment) Act
is discriminatory and violative of human rights has been recognised by those
who have come out on the streets in many States, in opposition to the Act. It
is noteworthy that university and college students figure so prominently in the
upsurge against the Act. Though pushed through in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya
Sabha by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, these young citizens
of India have come together — much as students did during the anti-colonial
struggle — to reject the attempt to divide India along religious lines. They
have denounced this Act as discriminatory and violative of human rights.
The Right’s agenda
Our final point, that the agenda of
Hindutva and its ultimate goal of establishing a “Hindu Nation” underlie the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, is well established both by past experience and
the present actions of the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. We mentioned
earlier the absence of the forces of Hindutva from the freedom movement. It was
in this period that M.S. Golwalkar propounded his theory of India as a “Hindu
Nation,” where other religious communities had no rights of citizenship. The
Citizenship (Amendment) Act is the latest blow by the BJP to the secular nature
of our polity.
When the Left has been in Government
we have made every effort to use the machinery at our command to preserve
communal harmony; elsewhere, we have organised the masses to ensure such
harmony.
Notes from Kerala
Kerala’s struggle for secularism and
social equality has much to teach us. Historically, the different strands of
Kerala’s social renaissance and, subsequently, the forces of the Left and other
progressive sections, fought hard against social discrimination and
communalism, and for social and economic equality.
All political parties and social
groupings of different types in Kerala, other than the parties and
organisations of Hindutva, have come together against the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act. The peaceful satyagraha held in Thiruvananthapuram on December
16, attended by political parties, religious leaders, and cultural leaders is a
symbol of our united determination to uphold constitutional values and basic
human rights, and to oppose discrimination.
We cannot postpone our protest and
united resistance against this assault on secularism and democracy.
Pinarayi Vijayan is the Chief
Minister of Kerala
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