Expat doc from Kerala says he was forced to resign job for FB post supporting CAA

Dr Ajith Sreedharan who was working in a private hospital in Qatar resigned allegedly following the threat to hospital management from Indian community for expressing his support to CAA.

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A Kerala expat doctor alleged he was forced to resign from his job for expressing his support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in a Facebook post. Dr Ajith Sreedharan who was working in a private hospital in Qatar resigned allegedly following threats to hospital management from a few members of the Indian community in the region.

Dr Ajith Sreedharan, an orthopedic specialist, had been working at Naseem Healthcare LLC in Qatar for the past 10 years.

It was on Wednesday that Dr Ajith wrote a Facebook post in support of the controversial legislation by saying that the agitations against it are part of a plan to bring down the Narendra Modi government in the centre. According to Dr Ajith, the post became controversial among the Indian community, especially the Malayali expat community where he worked.

Speaking to TNM, Dr Ajith said, "Though I did not personally receive any threats from anyone, the management of the hospital was receiving threats on a daily basis after I wrote the FB post. They were threatening the hospital management that Indian community there will boycott the hospital. I personally witnessed the management officials receiving such threat calls. I decided to voluntarily resign,” Dr Ajith tells TNM.

Dr Ajith also states that he had not written anything which incited any communal disharmony. “I did not write anything which shows any religion in a bad light. I just expressed my opinion on why I support the legislation. But it was twisted and propagated in such a way, saying that I was trying to incite communal disharmony. I consider what happened to me as more like a warning to others," he says.

Meanwhile, the hospital management in an official statement stated that the remarks made by Dr Ajith in his Facebook post were personal and that the management is an apolitical organisation which does not resonate the ideas of any groups.

Citizenship (Amendment) Act allows granting Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, who are Hindus, Christians, Sikh, Buddhists, Jains or Parsis and entered India before December 31, 2014.

The legislation explicitly denies the same provision to Muslim immigrants. Severe protests against CAA is brewing across the country for the past many days. A total of 20 people have been killed across the country, mostly in police firings, during the agitations.