india

Updated: Dec 25, 2019 22:58 IST

Fifty one professors of the Banaras Hindu University carried out a signature drive on Wednesday against the National Register of Citizen (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and appealed to the government to rethink about the long term implications of these exercises.

Prof RP Pathak, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, BHU, who participated in the signature drive, linked the CAA to the NRC and said they were against the idea of India.

“This is completely against the spirit of freedom struggle and the idea of a pluralist democracy. This is not acceptable in the land of Gandhi and Tagore,” Pathak said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah have said that the NRC is not linked to the CAA and that the two posed no threat to citizenship of Indian Muslims.

Pathak further alleged that an attempt to divide the society on communal lines was being made to make the real issues of the day affecting the common man take a backseat, against the Indian tradition and philosophy of inclusiveness.

Another Professor, who didn’t wish to be named, urged the government to rethink about the implications.

“We request the government to rethink about the long term implications of this act and hope national interest would prevail over partisan politics,” he said.

Uttar Pradesh has seen violent protests against the NRC and CAA resulting in deaths of 18 protestors and injuries to several others since December 19. A child was crushed in a stampede of protestors triggered by police action in Varanasi last Friday.

The police say the protesters have damaged public property worth around Rs 100 crore in seven districts of the state.

The professors unanimously urged the protestors not to indulge in violence and asked them to express their disagreement through peaceful and democratic means.

“We also condemn police brutalities on students of many universities like Jamia Millia Islamia,” said another professor, referring to the police crackdown on the protesting students from Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia among others.