Members of the Muslim community staged a protest under the aegis of Muslim Muttahida Mahaz organisation here today against the amended Citizenship Act and against the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Addressing the protest meet, Parvez Ahmed, a functionary of Mahaz, said that the Act and the proposal to extend NRC to the entire country was a ‘conspiracy’ hatched by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre to divide society on the basis of religion.
He said that as the Act proposes to accord citizenship on the basis of religion, it is ‘discriminatory’ and ‘undemocratic’.
Referring to the protests that have erupted in North-Eastern States, he said that the Centre has passed the bill in haste without taking the apprehensions of the tribal and the Muslim communities on the issue. Alleging that the Act as well as NRC amounted to an exercise of communal enumeration and would result in the disenfranchisement of the Muslim community, he demanded the Centre to withdraw them.
M. Gurumurthy, a functionary of Karnataka Dalita Sangharsha Samiti, said that the promise by the BJP prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha election to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks and to create two crore jobs every year have remained unfulfilled. The initiatives by the Centre on the Act and NRC were an effort to divert the attention of the people from the failures to generate employment opportunities and bring back black money, he contended.
Security personnel were deployed in large numbers to maintain peace and order during the protest. The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the office of Deputy Commissioner in this regard.
In Holenarsipur
Muslim residents of Holenarsipur town took out a protest march on Friday opposing the Citizenship Act.
The protesters, in a memorandum addressed to the President, termed the Act, which denies the claim of religious persecution of Muslim immigrants, unconstitutional and condemnable. “The Constitution upholds the secular nature of the country. But, the amendment negates the very idea of India and divides its people based on religion”, they said.
The Centre has proposed to implement NRC across the country. The results of NRC implemented in Assam show how it could disturb the peace. “We all oppose the amendment and wish the government listens to the protesters opposing it across the country”, they added.
They submitted the memorandum to the tahsildar.
Mujahid Pasha, ex-councillor, Muheed Ilyaz, Imam of Jamiya Masjid, and others led the protest.
