Bombay High Court lawyer and author Abhinav Chandrachud on Sunday said a very compelling argument can be made in front of the court that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is unconstitutional.
“You have left out atheists from the CAA. Why have you left out Jews? Someone answered that they had Israel. Then there are countries for Christians as well. So this argument doesn’t hold. The CAA also excludes people fleeing racial prosecution and gender discrimination. Then the claim that the CAA gives citizenship to people on humanitarian grounds is also wrong,” Mr. Chandrachud said.
He was speaking at the concluding day of the two-day Mumbai Collective at Y B Chavan Centre. “As far as I can read into this, a very compelling argument can be made in front of the court that the Act is unconstitutional,” he said.
Harsh Mander, a social activist, termed the CAA and the NRC an unfinished agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from the time of Partition.
“I think what we are seeing today in opposition to it is the unfinished business of our freedom struggle. I fear the situation may turn more communal in the coming four years of the government. The government is working with two objectives — to keep Indian Muslims in a constant state of fear and to create such a deep divide between the communities which will take the country to the brink of a civil war,” he alleged.