Dando meeting demands immediate withdrawal of CAA, NRC and NPR

Team Herald

MARGAO: A well attended public meeting at Dando grounds Benaulim demanded outright the withdrawal of CAA, NRC and NPR. The meeting also asked for special gram sabhas to be convened to object to the same while castigating the government for stage managing the violence in Delhi against peaceful protestors. Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao attended the entire meeting.

Besides, the meeting cautioned the government against setting off civil strife due to its actions of sponsoring violence against the peaceful protestors in Delhi. The people braved the scorching sun for many hours as the meeting commenced one hour beyond the scheduled time. However, all speakers spoke for only 10 minutes. Muzaffar Shaikh spoke for 22 minutes ignoring constant reminders to cut short his speech.

Welcoming the crowd Dr Savio Fernandes, executive secretary of Council for Social Justice and Peace, Goa said the Delhi violence was due to the hate speeches of some MLAs. “The tribal, fisher folk and toddy tappers in Goa will face problems if CAA is implemented,” said Fernandes.

Advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho asserted that CAA was unconstitutional as the preamble of Indian Constitution states that it is a secular country and yet this law is based on religion as it specifies certain religious communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh while leaving out other communities like Jews.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent statement that NRC will not be made applicable all over the country is only due to the nearly three-month long struggle against the three proposals from the Union government and said the struggle should continue till CAA is withdrawn.

Advocate Sonia Pereira, while pointing out that India is not a Hindu state, said the present move of the prime minister and home minister is only to increase the Hindu population in the country and thus strengthen its vote base.

“In Assam 19 lakh people including a former Chief Minister of that State have been declared as not citizens of India under the NRC,” she said while pointing out that the Centre has provided Rs 4000 crore in December to implement NPR and hence she said not to believe the lies the ministers keep dishing out.

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“It was lamentable that only one per cent of the Constitution has been implemented in the country as mentioned by a retired Supreme Court judge. Over the world being born in a country automatically makes the person a citizen of that country. India appears to be different where it is asking people to establish that they are Indian citizens even if they were born in the country,” said Professor Janardhan Tamankar.

He said the detention centres are horrible and disclosed that so far 6000 people have died in Assam in the detention centre. “Since the Citizenship Act was passed in 1955, 43,000 people have been granted Indian citizenship,” he added.

Ramkrishna Jalmi pointed out that it was the youth and particularly the student community that first “raised their voice against these proposals which are being pushed by Amit Shah who is allegedly accused of nine murders and has now reportedly killed 36 people in Delhi.”

He lamented that in Goa though Gawdas, Kunbis and Velips have been declared as Scheduled Tribes they have not been given their forest rights nor has the scheduled area been demarcated for them. “The tribal community will be worst affected as they hold control over large tract of land which is sought to be grabbed by these proposals,” he added.

The meeting was organised by People’s Forum for Justice, Secularism and Democracy and Council for Social Justice and Peace along with National Federation of Human Rights Organisations and Concerned Citizens of Goa.