Owaisi moves Supreme Court against CAA despite Muslim influencers backing law

Mangalore Today News Network/News18

New Delhi, Mar 16, 2024: All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday moved the Supreme Court against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). His move comes even as a number of Muslim influencers have come out in support of the law.

 

Owaisi also questioned the fate of 1.5 lakh Muslims, who were allegedly left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam.

“Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said the 12 lakh Hindus listed in the NRC conducted in the state will be given Indian citizenship under CAA, but what about the 1.5 lakh Muslims? People are saying nothing is going to happen immediately. I want to tell them that things take time to unfold…” Owaisi was quoted as saying by ANI during a public meeting in Hyderabad on Friday.

Meanwhile, state of Kerala also filed an application in the top court, seeking to stay the enforcement of the Act.

Dr Feroz Bakht Ahmed, former chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MAANU), had earlier told News18 that there’s nothing for the Muslim community to debate or protest about the CAA since it does not concern them.

“Every channel is debating CAA, leading to the perception that there are issues with CAA… but there’s nothing to debate…there should only be discussions which clarify that this law is about giving right not taking away,” Ahmed said.

When asked about the spectre of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that has been raised by opposition politicians like Mamata Banerjee and Asaduddin Owaisi, Ahmed said, “NRC kal aata hai, aaj aa jaye (Doesn’t matter whether NRC comes today or tomorrow). Why should an Indian Muslim, who has sacrificed for this country, shed his blood against the British…why should he worry? So many other Islamic countries including Pakistan have NRC…Only the illegal immigrant should fear the NRC.”

Union home minister Amit Shah has also on many occasions said that the new law has no provision to strip anyone of their citizenship.

Hitting out at the Congress and AIMIM, Shah, addressing party meetings in Hyderabad earlier this week, said AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Hyderabad Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi are lying that minorities of the country will lose their citizenship with the implementation of CAA.

“We had said we will bring CAA. The Congress party opposed CAA. Since Independence it was a promise of the Congress and makers of our Constitution that citizenship will be granted to those persecuted religious minorities in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, who come (to India). But, due to appeasement and vote-bank politics, the Congress party opposed the CAA,” Shah said, justifying its implementation.

He said in order to save their faith and honour lakhs and crores of people from Pakistan and Bangladesh came to India, but were not granted citizenship.

“They (refugees) felt insulted in their own country when they were not granted citizenship,” he said, adding that PM Modi honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh refugees by granting them citizenship through the CAA.

The Centre on Monday implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, notifying the rules four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.

With the unveiling of the rules that came days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from the three countries. The rules came into force with immediate effect, according to a Gazette notification.