Dialogue on NRC, CAB and Detention Camps

KANNAN Gopinathan, the IAS officer who resigned dissenting abrogation of Article 370 in the Jammu-Kashmir, took part in dialogues on NRC, CAB, detention camps and other issues at Muzaffarnagar and Patna. At the dialogue in Patna, he said that a country is made of its citizens, it gives us our Constitution, and nobody can snatch away our citizenship. He stated that people across the country should oppose NRC and CAB as these bills are against democratic rights. He pointed out that the government, bureaucracy and judiciary are all ranged against our own citizens on the Kashmir issue and the voice of Kashmiris has been silenced. He said that the citizen’s right to question government decisions cannot and should not be silenced. However, today those who voice dissent are being branded anti-nationals.

Kannan further said that we should ask the government why black money and terrorism have not been ended despite demonetization which was claimed as the remedy to all this. He strongly condemned the way in which Article 370 has been abrogated and the people of Kashmir caged and stripped of human rights, and said that the people of other states like UP and Bihar must stand up for the people of Kashmir. He also criticized the NRC and proposed CAB, saying that the poor, dalits, adivasis and workers will not be able to produce papers dating back 50 years to prove their citizenship. He also pointed out the inhumanity and injustice of detention camps into which citizens are being forced.

Eminent educationist Mohd Ghalib, CPIML State Committee member Rambali Singh Yadav, former Director of AN Sinha Institute DM Diwakar and others also participated in the dialogue, and Kannan Gopinathan answered many questions raised by people in the audience. The dialogue in Patna was attended by many social activists and educationists.