States did, now you should reject CAA-NRC-NPR: Jamiat to Muslims, Hindus

Urging Muslims and Hindus to jointly reject CAA-NRC-NPR, Prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on Tuesday (March 3) cited the example of states rejecting the move.

“Muslims and Hindus must jointly reject CAA, NRC and NPR. In states, where the government is opposing the Centre’s laws, people can proactively reject it,” Jamiat chief Maulana Arshad Madani was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Muslim body.

He made the remarks at a “Save Democracy” conference in Hyderabad.

The comments come in the wake of relentless opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

States like Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh had passed resolutions against the CAA, which seeks to give citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The passing of the law had triggered widespread protests across the country, many of which are yet to come to an end.

The politics of hate had divided the country once, and the country is again at the same juncture, Madani said, an apparent reference to the Partition of India and Pakistan after independence from the British.

“Jamiat believes that CAA is an attack on the secular nature of India, and not a Hindu-Muslim issue. The secular character of the Constitution binds Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists, and people of other religions,” he said.

(With agency inputs)