Students of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) in Hyderabad shot off a letter to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, asking him to ensure that the state's Legislative Assembly passes a resolution against the Centre's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Stating that the CAA goes against the spirit of the Constitution "which defines and protects the rights of citizenship of Indians and guarantees equality before law without prejudice to religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth or any of them," the MANUU students' union said that the newly-designed National Population Register (NPR) could be considered the first step towards NRC.
The students said that this was "creating distress and anxiety among the common people."
"CAA, NRC and NPR are against Indian Constitution and a threat to the secular ethos of this country. Our country needs to register unemployed youth and uneducated children, not NRC and NPR," the letter said.
Pointing out that the state governments of Kerala and Punjab have passed a resolution in the Assembly against the CAA, the letter to KCR said, "We request you to please take a firm decision to stop CAA, NRC and NPR and defeat the divisive agenda of the communal forces in the larger interest of the nation."
The students' union wrote letters to nine non-BJP ruled chief ministers in total, requesting all of them to pass Assembly resolutions against CAA and NRC.
Hyd-MANUU Students Union sent letters requesting 9 non-BJP ruled states to pass assembly resolution against #CAA & #NRC and #NPR. pic.twitter.com/F938hWzNna
— CharanTeja (@CharanT16) January 22, 2020
While the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had voted against the CAA in Parliament, KCR has maintained silence on the issue and refused to offer a comment.
However, KCR's close aide and state Home Minister Mahmood Ali has said that NRC will not be implemented the state.
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