Vote Against CAB As It Will Foment Ethnic Discontent: IIM Bangalore Students, Faculty Write To MPs

Ahead of the introduction on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha, around 70 students, faculty members and other staff of the prestigious IIM-Bangalore have written an open letter to the lawmakers of Parliament to vote against the draft legislation. The letter, a copy of which is with News Nation, say that the Bill will spread communal discontent in the country.

“Dear Hon. Members of Parliament, We the undersigned students, staff, and faculty of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore write to you with a sense of urgency. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) has been cleared by the union cabinet and is slated to be introduced in the parliament soon. The CAB goes against the fundamental founding principle of our republic – equality before law without regard to religious beliefs,” the letter read.

“The CAB, along with the promise of an expanded nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) has spread fear in the minds of more than two-hundred million of our fellow Muslim citizens. India’s great strength lies in its diversity. Stripping two-hundred million fellow Indians of their basic dignity will not make India great or strong. Instead, it will lay the foundations of a country in perpetual strife,” it added.

In the letter, the IIM-Bangalore students and teach said that, “the CAB will foment ethnic and communal discontent across the vast swathe of India from Tamil Nadu to Assam, even while it is highly unlikely to benefit even the intended beneficiaries. We urge you to oppose the CAB in the parliament. Generations to come will salute the stand that you took in 2019 to safeguard the founding principles of our republic.”

With Union Home Minister Amit Shah set to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Bill on Monday, the ruling BJP has issued whip to all its Lok Sabha members to remain present in the House for three days starting from December 9, sources in the party said on Sunday.

The bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there. The whip, asking all BJP MPs to be present in the House, has been issued, a source said. The bill to amend the six-decade-old Citizenship Act will be introduced in Parliament in the afternoon, and later in the day it will be taken up for discussion and passage, according to the Lok Sabha's List of Business for Monday.

The Bill is set to sail through smoothly in the Lok Sabha, as the BJP has 303 MPs in the 545-member House. Earlier, the Union Cabinet approved the draft law that seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there.