From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jan 9: Archbishop of Bengaluru Dr Peter Machado, President of All Karnataka United Christians Forum for Human Rights, has urged the Centre to hold dialogue with the students and all those opposing the recently passed Citizens Amendment Act (CAA), which is witnessing countrywide protests.
In a memorandum addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, submitted through Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, Bengaluru Metropolitan Archbishop appealed to the Modi government to grant citizenship to the illegal migrants ‘not on the basis of religion but on the merit of each individual case’.
The memorandum also appealed to all the citizens to maintain peace and harmony, and that they should not recourse to violent methods to fight for their cause.
It said the CAA seeks to accord citizenship to illegal Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jains, Parsis and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It, naturally, implies that migrants, who identify themselves with any group or community other than those mentioned above, from these countries will not be eligible for citizenship.
The CAA seeks to relax the provisions for ‘Citizenship by naturalisation’ and reduces duration of residency from existing 11 years to just five years for people belonging to the same six religions and three countries.
“This law has caused misunderstanding among the people and led to lots of violence and uproar in Assam, and now slowly spreading to other parts of the country as well.
Reiterating the stand of CBCI President, His Eminence Valerian Cardinal Gracias, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bombay, that the CAA poses a danger that there could be a polarization of our peoples along religious polarization which was very harmful to the country.
“It is necessary that the Government dialogues with those opposing the Act, and come to an agreement about the way forward with justice, equity and fairness. There is no harm in backtracking: changing course if this is necessary for the good of the country and our people. By doing so, it can meet out justice to all the illegal migrants and thus promote equality and convince the citizens of the country that the Constitution will be upheld and the religious minorities will not be subjected to any discrimination,’’ it said.
“Through this Memorandum, we wish to stress the point that the Christian Community will continue to work for the betterment of all the citizens without any discrimination and will continue to build the Nation based on equality, justice and fairness. And we also express our solidarity with those who have been discriminated on the basis of Religion, and assure them of our support and fellowship that justice may be granted to them and that all of us may live as one family as brothers and sisters in this our Mother Land,’’ the memorandum added.