Condemning the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in unequivocal terms, members of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the Students Organisation of India (SIO), the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and various other Muslim organisations staged a protest demonstration in Khammam on Friday.
Displaying placards terming the CAB “communal”, “discriminatory” and “'unconstitutional”, the protesters shouted slogans demanding immediate scrapping of the bill to protect the nation’s secular fabric.
The demonstrators displayed large banners with slogans denouncing the CAB dubbing it “divisive” for “using religion as a legal criterion for determining Indian citizenship”.
They flayed the CAB and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Similar protest demonstrations were held in various other parts of the erstwhile Khammam district.
At Madhira town, activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) set ablaze the copies of the CAB in a symbolic protest against the bill.
At Nalgonda, members of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind here appealed to the President of India requesting withdrawal of the CAB and and its replacement with an appropriate measure.
President of the Nalgonda chapter Syed Ehsanuddin said the bill marked a radical break with the history, and also arbitrarily violated the Assam Accord, 1985, causing disturbances in the Northeast.
Members of the organisation later submitted a petition to the District Collector.
The Suryapet chapter of Jamiat Ulama also held rallies in the town, carrying black flags and banners, against the bill and the National Register of Citizens.
At Nizamabad, Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Students Islamic Organisation of India and other Muslim organisations held a demonstration, protesting against the bill, and urged the Supreme Court to annul the bill under Judicial Review.
Ahmed Abdul Haleem, State secretary of Jamat-e- Islami Hind, said that the government did not show sympathy over religiously oppressed immigrants in passing the bill but intended to advance its communal agenda. Discrimination against a community on the basis of religion was against the spirit of the Constitution and violation of Article 14, he said.
Abdul Gani, State general secretary of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), said the bill was unconstitutional and violated the Articles 14, 15 and 25, which gave equality to all citizens before law and prohibited discrimination based on religion, caste, creed, sex, colour and place of birth.
Leaders of SIO, MPJ, Welare Party and BLF Dandi Venkat, Chennaiya, Lingam, and Sagar spoke.
