Pratap Bhanu Mehta said the bill will transform India into an "unconstitutional ethnocracy"

Academicians Pratap Bhanu Mehta has said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will transform India into an 'unconstitutional ethnocracy' even as more than 1,000 scholars and scientists signed a petition demanding the legislation to be withdrawn.

The scientists and academicians said the use of religion as a criterion for citizenship in the proposed bill would mark a radical break and would be inconsistent with the basic structure of the Constitution.



The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha after Monday midnight following a fierce debate lasting over seven hours.

The bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there.

Civil rights activist Harsh Mander said that if the bill is passed, he will register as a Muslim.

Mandar tweeted: 'I will officially register as a Muslim. I will then refuse to submit any documents to NRC. I will finally demand the same punishment as any undocumented Muslim -- detention centre & withdrawn citizenship. Join this civil disobedience,' Mander tweeted.



Mehta, a signatory to the petition, said the citizenship bill will convert a constitutional democracy into a unconstitutional ethnocracy.

'We can debate the past forever. But with CAB India takes a giant step to officially convert a constitutional democracy into a unconstitutional ethnocracy,' he tweeted.