Academicians, filmmaker undertake door-to-door campaign against CAA

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) distributed handbills against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in several parts of Chennai on Sunday (December 22). The party roped in personalities from various walks of life, like education, film and politics, to distribute the handbills among the public.

V Vasanthi Devi, educationist and former vice chancellor of Mamonmaniam Sundaranar University and Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System, distributed handbills and interacted with public at T Nagar and Marina respectively.

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Filmmaker Lenin Bharathi and activists, A Soundararajan and Bhim Rao of CPI(M) and Prof Haja Gani of Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam spoke against the CAA and distributed handbills at MMDA, Egmore and several other parts of North Chennai.

The handbill contained information about the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in a question and answer format. It criticised the arguments made by Home Minister Amit Shah on non-Muslims in Pakistan. Discriminating people on the basis of religion is not only wrong but also dangerous, it said.

“Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act,” Gajendra Babu quoted renowned physicist Albert Einstein, Gajendra Babu during a campaign at Mattan Kuppam in Marina. He said if there is a kind of apprehension among the people, it is the duty of every citizen to let the masses know about it.

Differentiating between the Census Act, 1948 and the National Population Register (NPR), Prince said the data collected for census will not be used for any other purpose and even the government will be given the abstract of the information collected during the census.

“Whereas, the National Population Register is not a mere census. While updating the NPR, they even want the biometric details of the individuals. So, each individual’s personal data is compromised as it will be in the digital form,” he said.

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According to the Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. “It guarantees its citizens a life of dignity. When my privacy is compromised, I feel it goes against the rights enshrined in the Constitution,” Prince added.

He further claimed there would be no need for a separate database for the NRC as the government can extract the required information from NPR.

“After the passage of the contentious bill, people have become very apprehensive because their citizenship is now being defined based on their faith. Not being aware about a law is not an excuse. Therefore, we are educating them about the law and how they would be challenged to prove their citizenship,” Prince said.

Bharati, who undertook a door-to-door campaign near MMDA bus stand, felt that allowing the act would be against all the citizens of the country, and not only the minorities.

Stating it is against the Constitution of India, he said it shows the autocratic nature of the union government. “If this is allowed, they would then take on the other oppressed class and communities in the name of caste, colour and religion,” he said.

“The government has already suppressed the poor from entering medical colleges in the name of entrance examination. Now, it is the need of the hour to let people know about the new Citizenship Act,” he added. He also slammed the BJP saying people who did not have any role in the freedom struggle are now deciding whether a person is a citizen of India.

Devi, who campaigned against new law at Pushpa Nagar in Thousands Lights, asked the people not to divulge their details for NPR. “It is not about who is getting affected because of the Citizenship Act. It is a matter of concern that goes against the basic tenets of the Constitution,” she said.