NEW DELHI: Prominent Muslim organization Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) on Saturday appealed for reconsideration over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, saying, it is highly discriminatory and against the secular fabric of the nation.
The Muslim outfit also expressed concern over growing incidents of lynching in the country and criticized union minister Jayant Sinha for felicitating convicts in the Ramgarh lynching case. Terming the bill as "unconstitutional", JIH Secretary General Muhammad Salim Engineer said, "This bill against the spirit of the Constitution of India as it proposes to grant citizenship to people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan according to their religion. Thus Hindus from Bangladesh would be accepted but not Muslims''.
The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction. However, the Act doesn't have a provision for Muslim sects like Shias and Ahmediyas who also face persecution in Pakistan.
In a press conference on Saturday, the organization also "expressed concerns" over the accuracy of National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, which is expected to be released by July 30.
"According to the Assam Accord signed in 1985, anyone who entered the state after 24 March 1971 is considered as an illegal resident. Genuine citizens who are impoverished and could not maintain proper records are at the risk of being branded as foreigners. Most are declared foreigners due to minor inaccuracies in their documents. The number of those declared as foreigners have increased dramatically after the BJP government came to power in Assam," said Salim.
Condemning Sinha for "honouring" convicts of the Ramgarh lynching incident, JIH chief Maulana Syed Jalaluddin said, "Such events should be condemned as it gives encouragement to those who take the law in their hands. Jamaat demands that the central government and the state governments must put an end to such incidents of lawlessness." Jalaluddin added in the last four years, hate crimes and lynching against Muslims, Dalits and anybody suspected to be a criminal, has been rising.