FROM LEADING writers to artists, historians to former judges, 625 persons brought together by the Indian Cultural Forum have described the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, as “divisive, discriminatory and unconstitutional”, and demanded that the government withdraw it. A statement issued by the Forum stated that the Bill will, “along with a nationwide NRC, bring untold suffering to people across the country”. ”It will damage, fundamentally and irreparably, the nature of the Indian republic. This is why we demand that the government withdraw the Bill. This is why we demand that the government not betray the Constitution,” it said. The signatories of the statement include writers Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Githa Hariharan and Amit Chaudhuri; artists T M Krishna and Vivan Sundaram; filmpersons Aparna Sen and Anand Patwardhan; scholars Romila Thapar and Ramachandra Guha; and others from a cross-section of society including Justice (retd) A P Shah and Wajahat Habibullah.
