Citizenship Amendment Act

`Rights To Have Rights’ In Context Of Citizenship Matrix In India

Much has been said about the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 while protestors all over India demanded to withdraw the law claiming that it is discriminatory. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court but in this piece, it is added that the amendments made over the years, in the citizenship law, have changed the very notion and discourse of[Read More...]

CAA: Should United Nations Norms be respected in Domestic Policies?

In the wake of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) UN High Commissioner, Michele Bachelet, has filed an intervention in the Supreme Court petition challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act, as she is critical of CAA. Responding to her, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jai Shanker strongly rebutted her criticism, saying that the body (UNHCR) has been wrong and is blind[Read More...]

Legal assessment on possible invasions of right to privacy: Perspectives from UP government’s ‘name and shame’ posters

The Uttar Pradesh government’s directive towards putting up the hoardings at Lucknow displaying the names, photographs and residential addresses of the 53 accused of anti-Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) protesters triggered outrage of possible invasion of right to privacy and liberty as Indian constitution prevails on the basis that, the suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.[Read More...]

Motion against India’s divisive Citizenship Amendment Act moved in New Westminster

Following in the footsteps of Seattle City council, which unanimously passed a motion against the discriminatory citizenship law adopted by India, a councillor in New Westminster made a similar move on Monday, March 9. Chuck Puchmayr, who is vocal on social justice and human rights, tabled a motion calling for the scrapping of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) amidst a[Read More...]

 An Open Letter to Harsh Vardhan Shringla (Indian’s Foreign External Affairs Secretary)

Dear Mr. Shringla: I write this open letter to question you most respectfully why you told a seminar in Dhaka on 2nd March that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by Indian parliament last year was misunderstood by many, also in Bangladesh. Although I can’t disagree with you more that: “This is a proactive legislation that has been undertaken on[Read More...]

India’s citizenship laws resemble South Africa’s Asiatic Registration Act

At a time when Delhi was burning in the fire of communal riots sparked by the provocative speeches of leaders of his own party as evident from video reports, it was ironical that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have invited President Trump to visit, of all places, Sabarmati, the ashram where Gandhi prayed for peace and non-violence – the very[Read More...]

 Trolleyology And India’s Citizenship Conundrum

A runaway trolley is hurtling down a track and it will kill five unsuspecting workers unless you pull a switch to divert the trolley on to another track in which case only one person, who works there, will die. Would you pull the switch? You’re a bystander standing on a footbridge over the track, and luckily for you, you see[Read More...]

Not Just Communalist: Unpacking India’s New Citizenship Law and its Impact on the Indigenous Northeast

Globally, indigenous peoples’ land and cultural identity has been subjected to increasingly violent pressure in the last fifteen years, either for resources or due to demographic tensions over land.Indigenous land defenders attempting to protect fragile homelands from dispossession for mining, food, and logging projects are being subjected totargeted killings at twice the rate of previous decades. Between 2002 and 2017,[Read More...]