Harsh Mander: Will declare myself Muslim if CAB becomes a law

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Harsh Mander: Will declare myself Muslim if CAB becomes a law

Harsh Mander's tweet came soon after over 1,000 scientists and scholars signed a petition urging the govt to withdraw the Bill

Tuesday December 10, 2019 7:50 PM, ummid.com News Network

[Harsh Mander's tweet came soon after over 1,000 scientists and scholars, including Mander, signed a petition urging the Modi government to completely withdraw the Bill. (File Photo: LILA Foundation)]

Mumbai: In a strong rebuttal of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019, former IAS Officer and Human Rights Activist Harsh Mander Tuesday said he will register himself as a Muslim if the controversial is passed by the Parliament and becomes a law.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 has been cleared by the Lok Sabha Monday and is likely to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.

"I will officially register as a Muslim. I will then refuse to submit any documents to NRC. I will finally demand the same punishment as any undocumented Muslim -- detention centre & withdrawn citizenship. Join this civil disobedience," Mander tweeted.

If CAB is passed, this is my civil disobedience:
I will officially register Muslim. I will then refuse to submit any documents to NRC. I will finally demand the same punishment as any undocumented Muslim- detention centre & withdrawn citizenship.
Join this civil disobedience

— Harsh Mander (@harsh_mander) December 10, 2019

Harsh Mander's tweet came soon after over 1,000 scientists and scholars, including Mander, signed a petition urging the Modi government to completely withdraw the Bill.

"We can debate the past forever. But with CAB India takes a giant step to officially convert a constitutional democracy into an unconstitutional ethnocracy," noted academician Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a signatory to the petition, tweeted.

Academician Ramchandra Guha hit out at Home Minister Amit Shah and said he was a professed Savarakrite and had no issue with Muhammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory.

"Savarkar, 1943: I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's two-nation theory. We Hindus are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations'. The home minister, a professed Savarkarite, has no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's two-nation theory either," Guha tweeted.

The petition said the idea of India emerged from the independence movement, and as enshrined in Constitution, is that of a country that aspires to treat people of all faiths equally.

"The use of religion as a criterion for citizenship in the proposed bill would mark a radical break with this history and would be inconsistent with the basic structure of the Constitution. We fear, in particular, that the careful exclusion of Muslims from the ambit of the bill will greatly strain the pluralistic fabric of the country," the petition noted.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has called for countrywide protest on Wednesday when the bill is likely to be introduced in Rajya Sabha. North-East India is already on boil and N-E groups say they will continue their protest till the Bill is withdrawn.

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