IIMB faculty and students appeal to MPs to oppose Citizenship Amendment Bill

A few hours prior to the tabling of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the parliament, 69 faculty and students of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore wrote a letter to the Members of Parliament, asking them to oppose it. The letter says that the bill is "against the fundamental founding principle of our republic – equality before the law without regard to religious beliefs."

"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, reads the letter. The Bill that amends the Citizenship Act of 1955, this will exempt Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan from The Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920. There has been criticism against the bill saying that deciding one's citizenship on the basis of religion is unconstitutional.

The bill also goes hand-in-hand with the National Citizenship Register. "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," the letter reads. "it says."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 reads.

The letter concludes by appealing the MPs to oppose the bill. "Generations to come will salute the stand that you took in 2019 to safeguard the founding principles of our republic," it reads.