Mangaluru : Noted civil and human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on Sunday March 1 slammed the BJP-led central government in connection with the recent riots in Delhi and the enactment of the controvsial Citizenship Amendment Act despite protests, and said that there is a need to break the extreme negative politics happening in the country now.

She was speaking at School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya here on the theme ‘Understanding our times: People’s struggle and state response’ organized by We the People and Citizens’ Forum for Mangalore Development (CFMD).

“Today we are facing such a huge challenge because of the present political situation. We need to break the extreme negative politics happening in the country today. The Citizenship Amendment Act which is being implemented will not only affect the Muslims but also adivasis, dalits, migrant labourers, nomadic tribes and other sections of society. Five years prior to the Gujarat riots of 2002, I had predicted it because of the transformation the society was going through, and unfortunately genocide happened.”

She also emphasized the need to hold protests in a systematic and organised manner. “Otherwise, they will not fetch good results,” she said.

“The was an effort to target one section of the community for long, and now with the move to implement CAA, the government has shown how it is engaged in divide and rule. But the people have sensed the hidden agenda of the BJP government, and are now descending on streets. This has now become the fundamental problem of the country.

“The government has used the technique of brute force when there was peaceful (anti-CAA) protest. This is like a freedom struggle to reclaim our public space and citizenship right. Use of force to quell protests is nothing but a violation of human rights. We need to celebrate the fact that fear is breaking away and all are coming out to raise their voice. We should keep this pressure on as Indian Muslim women know that there will be no space in future for them. This spontaneous movement should continue in order to regain our space,” she said.

She further said that if citizenship was snatched away under NRC as in Assam, people would be denied their right to avail government schemes and right to vote, which would be nothing less than rendering civil death. “The document-based citizenship test is unconstitutional. Only 58% of the Indian citizens have their birth certificates, and only they will be able to clear the citizenship test. During the Aadhar process all documents were collected, and many were denied Aadhar for not having permanent address. But now they say Aadhar is not a document for citizenship. Why do you want to repeat the process all over again with NPR or NRC?

“We are not opposing the census as it is needed to count the total population of the country and to provide government facilities. But when it was undertaken by the UPA government, the place and date of one’s parents were not asked, so why are they asking that now?” she questioned.

“They have even amended the passport rules just for the sake of CAA, NPR and NRC. There are certain rules to identify illegal immigrants and laws to tackle the issue. I object to the BJP leaders terming them as ‘ghuspetiya’ (infiltrators). They can call them refugees or illegal immigrants,” she said.

When asked about what one should do when officials come to doorsteps asking for documents, she said, “We should start a movement in a decisive manner to refuse to give documents when someone arrives at our doorsteps. We should also carry out a signature campaign, meet MLAs , MPs and take delegations repeatedly to the chief minister. We can even file a petition and challenge the Act.”