CAA and NRC Combination Violates India’s Secular Constitution

Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) is discriminatory and a supreme violation of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. The current amendment will make the CAA mainly focused on the religious identity of its citizens, which contradicts India’s international human rights obligations. According to the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah in the parliament, CAA, in combination with NRC, creates the legal grounds to strip off the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship for millions of Indian Muslims.

NANMMA is against divisive politics of the current government to create a religious polarization in the great secular nation of India.

We are with

• US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the United Nations’ human rights body that expressed significant concerns over the new Indian Citizenship Amendment Act.
• The intellectual and social leaders that have openly condemned the Act and have written an open letter to the Indian Prime Minister
• The students from many universities and schools across India who have been protesting and making their voice heard
• The marginalized and concerned citizens of India who are living in India for generations and are worried about their families and children being separated from them
• All national and international organizations that are peacefully demonstrating against the new Act and requesting the Government of India to repeal the Act with immediate effect.

We believe that the equal treatment of Indian Muslims is fundamentally a battle for India’s foundational values of secularism and democracy.

NANMMA vehemently decry the discriminatory and unconstitutional Act and calls for the immediate revocation of NRC and CAA to protect and preserve the secular ethos of the Indian constitution.