PREPARED BY GRADUATES OF GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
LISTEN, HEAR US OUT!
MYTH: The CAA is a passed law and
therefore constitutionally valid.
BUSTED!
Laws passed by the Parliament can still be struck
down as unconstitutional. The judiciary
determines the constitutionality of the law as and
when the law is challenged. In the present case,
the Supreme Court will hear the challenge to the
CAA's constitutionality starting on 22 January
2020.
As for its validity, the Indian Constitution does not
allow different treatment of any person in Indian
territory, irrespective of whether they are citizens,
based on core or intrinsic characters of a person.
The inclusion of some groups in the CAA to the
exclusion of others based on their religion or
origin is unconstitutional.
MYTH: Muslim students are
unnecessarily protesting for
secularism, while they reap the
benefits of subsidised education in
minority institutes.
BUSTED!
The Constitution of India provides for minority
educational universities, which may admit
students from both minority and majority
communities. The same Constitution grants each
citizen the freedom of speech and expression
that includes the right to protest. The
fundamental right to freedom of speech and
expression does not go away even if the student
is receiving subsidised government education. In
any case, it is not just the “Muslim” students who
are protesting. Universities like Jamia started the
peaceful protests but many others including the
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) have followed
suit, spurring a nationwide student protest.
MYTH: Every country favours their
racial or religious majority. And
India is a Hindu nation.
BUSTED!
We’re not a Hindu nation. We’re only a Hindu
majority nation. Our Constitution prohibits
discrimination based on religion. Unlike Pakistan
and China (one an Islamic state, the other
Communist) we don’t have a State religion or
acrimony towards any religion. The fact that we
have more Hindus in India than people of any
other religion does not make India a Hindu
state. Upon Partition, India elected to be a
secular state, instead of a Hindu domicile state.
The Muslims who chose to stay in India were a
part of the foundation that we lay out for our
country. Our Constitution’s Preamble famously
begins with “We, the People...” There, the “we”
also includes 200 million Muslims.
MYTH: The CAA does not affect
Indian citizens. Muslims or
otherwise.
BUSTED!
The CAA is not about existing citizens. It only is that by granting a shortcut to
talks about granting citizenship to minorities citizenship to most communities except
from 6 religions and 3 countries. But the CAA
and the All India NRC proposed by the Home
Minister are connected and that is where the
problem lies. The NRC requires you to prove
citizenship not by tax records and Aadhar shouldn’t be unkind to anyone.
Numbers. It asks you to prove citizenship by
showing documents of your ancestors (What
documents? 404 Error: Answer Not Found!)
Only those of us privileged enough to have
such proof and who have never been displaced
by natural disasters or political strife will be
unaffected. The rest of us will surely have a
hard time producing these documents. If we
fail, we won’t appear on the National Register
for Citizens. The National Population Register
program also enable the state to mark out
‘doubtful’ citizens without giving grounds for
such doubt. Any of us could be on that list.
Arbitrarily.
Despite this, the CAA might save our skin if
we’re not Muslims. If we are, we lose
citizenship. The proof that this is actually
happening is in Assam where a separate NRC
has been implemented and 19 lakhs people
(including 7 lakhs Muslims) were excluded
when the NRC was rolled out in Assam, in
August. The CAA will preserve the rights of all
covered by it (i.e. 6 minorities from 3 countries)
but not Muslims.
MYTH: Muslims, because of their
violent history of Islamic invasion
and terror, deserve stricter
identification laws.
BUSTED!
Atrocities have been committed by individuals
from almost all communities against every
other community (1984 anti-Sikh riots, 2002
Gujarat riots). However, a democratic state
should not make laws from a place of
vengeance. It is our constitutional duty to
promote harmony and the spirit of common
brotherhood amongst all the people of India
transcending religious diversities. It is our
constitutional duty to develop humanism and
the spirit of reform. And our leaders might be
legislators, but they’re still citizens. And these
are their duties as well!
TRUTH: We still have a safe passage
for all Muslims who want to enter
the country legally.
This is actually true. But what is also true
Muslims, we relegate them to an inferior
status. We shouldn’t want the world to
think we’re unkind to anyone. We
MYTH: We’re helping all the people
who are facing Religious
Persecution in their home
countries.
BUSTED!
The CAA is only offering citizenship to
persecuted minorities of select religions and
from select neighbouring countries who may
have come to India fearing persecution.
However, if they are Muslims fearing
persecution then they are specifically left out.
People escaping persecution have nowhere to
go. Their lives are in danger in their countries.
If we are extending refuge, we should extend
it to people no matter what religion they follow.
Because we are a secular country!
MYTH: Illegal immigrants take our
jobs and share our depleting
resources.
BUSTED!
The CAA only grants easier access to
citizenship to illegal immigrants from 6 religions
that came to India before 31 December 2014.
There is no evidence to support that addition of
Muslim immigrants who already live in the
country to this set of religions will threaten
anyone’s jobs.
MYTH: An increase in the Muslim
population is a threat to the Indian
way of life.
BUSTED!
As far as the “Indian” way of life is concerned, let
us not forget that we love our biryani, naan, and
phirni, as much as we love our puri, chole, and
kulfi. The Indian way of life is of unity in diversity.
The Muslims that chose to stay back during the
partition chose the secular way of life, which is
the only Indian way. To exclude a particular
community from our fold is the non-Indian way of
life.