Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 31: The Concerned Citizens’ Group (CCG) led by former Union Minister, Yashwant Sinha has urged the Central Government to roll back the CAA-NRC policy without any delay to stop cycle of people’s resistance and adoption of harsh counter-measures.
“The youth-led protests by people of all faiths have been met with the use of unduly harsh measures by the State that has so far resulted in over two-dozen deaths, injuries to hundreds and destruction of public property, which is disturbing to every right thinking Indian,” the Group said in a statement.
It said that the hasty enactment of the patently discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and fears on related extension of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to the whole country, have triggered these protests. “The core message the protestors conveyed to Government is that the CAA, founded on religious basis of citizenship, is aimed against the nation’s principal minority, violates its rights and upends the fundamentals of India’s constitutional nationhood,” the Group stated, adding, it is unlikely that the protests would fritter away over time.
“We are bewildered by the ruling dispensation, so early in its second term, opting to embark on its ideological pursuit of ‘shock and awe’ by amending Article 370, abrogating Article 35A, breaking up J&K State into two Union Territories and initiating the CAA-NRC combine when it was confronting a monumental challenge of an economy in deep crisis,” the CCG said.
It further said that this is also appropriate time to recall the hapless plight of the people of J&K where the abrogation of provisions of Articles 370 and 35A has deeply wounded the psyche of the people of Kashmir, plunging Kashmiri society into untold misery with an undercurrent of unease, depression and, with the political leadership in continuing incarceration, ‘death of expectations and public politics.’
“The foremost fear shared by people of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh is demographic change. The education sector continues to be severely languishing. Tourism is in tatters. Business and Horticulture continue to suffer huge loss. Civic facilities like electric supply are in breakdown. Kashmir is witnessing the longest information technology shutdown in history and most fear that the on-going civil disobedience could lead to a revival of violence.
CCG urged the Central Government to focus its attention on these issues Government had promised while taking these draconian measures relating to J&K that it would not only integrate the state more closely with the rest of the country but would also develop J&K like the rest of India.
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