By Team Clarion
WASHINGTON, DC — The Assam government’s campaign to deport Bengali-speaking Muslims is “absolutely illegal” and “inhumane,” senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde has said.
Strongly condemning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s drive, the legal luminary warned that such actions dangerously redefine Indian citizenship along religious and linguistic lines.
Speaking at a Congressional briefing here on Thursday, Hegde said: “You cannot decide citizenship arbitrarily only on the basis of a person’s religion or on the basis of the language that you speak… this infection has carried on [from Assam] to various states in India.”
The Congressional briefing, convened by a coalition of civil and human rights organisations, also drew attention to allegations of organised voter suppression and citizenship revocation targeting marginalised populations in India
The event, held virtually, was sponsored by groups which claim to be committed to pluralism, religious freedom, and democratic integrity. They include the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, World Against Genocide, New York State Council of Churches, Genocide Watch, The Religious Nationalism Project, The Humanism Project (Australia), Diaspora in Action for Human Rights and Democracy, Center for Pluralism, and the Association of Indian Muslims of America, Washington DC.
At the briefing, Indian opposition leaders and legal experts outlined a pattern they describe as the systematic manipulation of electoral rolls and marginalisation of vulnerable communities.
This story was originally published in clarionindia.net. Read the full story here.