BENGALURU: The Citizenship Amendment Act has spurred widespread protests across the country because of its exclusionary clauses, Delhi-based-lawyer Gautam Bhatia said at an event held in the city recently. “This law includes communities like Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, but excludes the Rohingya Muslims, Tibetan refugees, and Tamils in Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is both inclusive as well as exclusionary,” said Bhatia, who was in the city to discuss his book, The Transformative Constitution.
The book provides a contemporary perspective of the Constitution, as India approaches the 70th anniversary of its adoption. He spoke about how the best constitutions in the world cannot be completely inclusive. He added, “The constitution is limited by the formation of the nation-state and the time of its formation. The future privileges cannot be anticipated ahead of its time.”
Bhatia pointed out that there are a lot of similarities in the constitutions of countries across the world. While they may speak a common language when it comes to ideas of equality and freedom, what makes them concrete, according to Bhatia, is the implementation according to the current scenario of a nation.