Popular Front of India will continue to stand with all Indian citizens till the end in their struggles for protection of citizenship rights.
Popular Front of India National Secretariat reiterated its support to nationwide democratic agitations that have been taking place peacefully against anti-constitutional and discriminatory CAA-NRC-NPR. The meeting of the secretariat reaffirmed its resolve to stand with fellow citizens for the cause of protecting citizenship rights as envisaged in Indian constitution and to defeat the attempts to intimidate the organisation through allegations new and old. The meeting also hailed the active presence of students, campuses and diverse sections of the society in the ongoing protests across the country.
Popular Front from the very beginning has supported the fights for the right of citizenship and protection of all civil rights which have been violated either by the government agencies or communal and fascist groups in the country. The Front has identified RSS as the biggest threat to the society and the nation, and educated its members and wider society through various democratic means. It is the only reason why the government vilify the organisation. BJP government aims to distract, debilitate and destroy this agitation using its machineries. The fact cannot be denied that the peaceful protests across the country turned violent and caused deaths and destruction only in the BJP ruled states. The violence including sexual assaults during the protest in U P were committed by the police personnel and Hindutva gangs, which lay bare to the whole world. Therefore they have to wash their hands off the situation putting all the blame on protesters and on some of the opposing organisations.
Everybody knows the fact that in spite of the participation or support of Popular Front in democratic and peaceful protests in different parts of the country, it had no role in any alleged violent incidents connected with protests. The police or the BJP leaders including some ministers from U P, Assam and Karnataka who alleged that Popular Front has instigated violence even accursed the organization as the “master mind” in their states could not produce a single evidence to substantiate their claim. In U P the police is not even complying to the court orders granting bail to the arrested activists and leaders and they are kept in jail after implicating them in new criminal cases.
The meeting expressed disappointment that a section of media has joined in this vilification campaign to malign the movement though they are well aware of the hidden agenda of the BJP government in the matter. The Central Secretariat reminded that the RSS controlled central and state governments would ultimately fail in suppressing the current mass upraising against the Hindutva ideology of hate and in stifling an anti-fascist people’s movement like Popular Front of India.
When the petitions on the constitutional validity of Citizesnship Amendment Act is before the Supreme Court and is supposed to consider within this month, the government has hastily enforced the act by with scant regard for the popular outrage against it across the country. Popular Front Central Secretariat stated it once again proved that the government is arrogant to democratic dissents and it has no respect for judiciary.
The meeting observed that the National Popular Register is not part of the census operations that the country executes in each decade, but it is being carried out based on the citizenship rules. The present attempt is not just the new round of NPR process which was carried out earlier in 2010 and updated in 2015. The questionnaire also raises suspicion; the one which was published on the website and the one given to the surveyors are contradictory. In fact, it is designed by BJP government in such a way as to act as the foundation of NRC. Popular Front has repeated its call to oppose NPR also along with CAA and NRC.
The meeting pointed out that the right to organise and express dissent is granted by our constitution should be protected through joint efforts. The slanderous campaigns and moves targeting Popular Front is a warning to all dissenting democratic voices in the country. Popular Front urged all secular, democratic and civil rights groups to raise their voices against the ongoing vilification campaigns and suppressive measures.
The Central Secretariat has decided to conduct 10,000 public awareness programs at grassroots level across India. Popular Front units will conduct door-to-door visits to educate the people about the communal and sectarian motives behind CAA-NRC-NPR moves.
M Mohammed Ali Jinnah
General Secretary
Popular Front of India
