UAPA, Umar Khalid and Unconstitutionality: The unlawful dance of democracy and dictatorship – Beragampengetahuan

Syed Umar Khalid is an Indian Student Activist. He was a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the former president of the Democratic Students’ Union (DSU) there. He faces charges under the UAPA statute for his alleged involvement in the sedition incident at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

As per the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), individuals who are migrants of Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, and Parsi descent who came to India illegally (i.e., without a visa) on or before December 31, 2014, from Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, and have resided there for a period of five years, are qualified to apply for Indian citizenship.

CAA overlooks the persecution of Hazaras, Ahmadis, atheists, and political dissidents in Pakistan, as well as oppressed minorities from other countries including Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. This Act uses an Indian citizen’s religion as a criterion. Articles 13, 14, 15, 16, and 21 of the Constitution, which protects the rights to equality, equality before the law, and non-discriminatory treatment by the Indian State, are all violated by the CAA. It also breaches secular values outlined in the Constitution.

Indian Muslims are negatively impacted by CAA+NRC because Muslims who lack the documentation needed to prove their citizenship in a National Register of Citizens (NRC) may be labelled as illegal migrants. They would also be unable to use CAA to obtain citizenship by pretending to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan, unlike non-Muslim Indians who may be able to do so.