A forum fighting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) has questioned why the people of India will furnish evidence of their citizenship after more than seven decades of India’s independence.

The Darjeeling district unit of the All Bengal Citizen Committee Against NRC, CAA hit the streets in Siliguri on Independence Day yesterday. The activists staged demonstrations near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

“Citizenship has been defined as the right to have rights. Citizenship in the country is based on the non-negotiable principles of equality and non-discrimination. It is unfortunate that after 75 years of India’s independence people are living in fear, apprehending losing of citizenship with the CAA, NRC and the National Population Register,” said the joint secretary of the committee, Dipti Roy.

Ms Roy said they condemned the 28-May order of the Union home ministry to grant citizenship to nonMuslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan residing in 13 districts of India. She said the unconstitutional, discriminatory order sought to drive a wedge among communities on religious grounds. The committee members had staged protests, including a three-day-long vigil against the CAA, NRC and NPR in Siliguri last year.

“We feel the greatest necessity now is to protect the foundational principles such as equality, justice and freedom that have come under severe attack at a time when the country celebrated the 75th Independence Day. The united and spirited resistance of people following the enactment of the CAA in 2019 had forced the Centre to a retreat. But now it is again trying to push the people to the dark in the name of citizenship. It is undermining the constitutional rights of the people. We will continue to resist such divisive agenda,” Ms Roy said.

The CAA, which was approved in 2019, proposes to fast-track Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities who came to India before 31 December 2014. It had sparked widespread protests across the country for allegedly tying up citizenship with religion.

There were widespread protests in different parts of the country following its enactment. In fact, Delhi had even seen riots in February last year. The forum exhorted the people to take a vow to collectively save citizens’ fundamental rights and constitutional values.