The Association of Indian Muslims of America also calls for intervention in Karnataka and Delhi.
An Indian American Muslim group has demanded the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh, where 18 people have died since last month, while protesting against the newly enacted Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The Association of Indian Muslims of America has appealed the President of India to dismiss the UP government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and proclaim the president’s rule in the state.
Kaleem Kawaja, the Executive Director of the organization, also called for imposing “special control” on Delhi state police, bringing the nation’s capital under the control of paramilitary forces, and monitoring the police in Karnataka to ensure that they do not commit brutalities.
UP and Karnataka are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, while in Delhi, the police forces are controlled by the central government, which is also ruled by the BJP.
Hundreds protest in Washington, DC, against CAA and NRC (December 22, 2019)
More than two-dozen people have died in since the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act was enacted last month, and all the deaths have come in three BJP-ruled states, Assam, Karnataka and UP, which accounts for most of the deaths.
“In the last three weeks Indian citizens, students and young people have held numerous peaceful public protests in over 50 cities all across India, against the unconstitutional Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registry of Citizens (NRC)… that were recently promulgated by the BJP government in India,” Kawaja said in a press release. “They are demanding the repeal of both Acts that may result in huge hardship to a very large number of citizens belonging to the economically disadvantaged citizens and Muslim citizens, and may result in many [losing] their citizenship.”
He said that, in response, police in states ruled by the BJP have violence on protesters. “In UP, armed police parties attacked the protesters and attacked civilians in their houses in the cities of Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Bijnore, Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh , caused injuries to them, damaged houses and looted cash and jewelry,” the statement said. “Police firing has resulted in the deaths of 18 people. In U.P. Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the state has made a public statement that the state will take revenge on the protesters, and has directed the police to unleash brutal violence on the peaceful protesters.”
The organization said, Delhi police attacked “students inside the campus of the Jamia Milia University, causing injuries to a large number of them” and also “connived with extremist Hindu youth as they attacked students and professors inside the campus” of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, “causing injuries to a large number of them.”
“As this huge outburst of police brutality and violence on peaceful protesters continues, the Indian government headed by Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi continues to be indifferent and seems to encourage the brutal police,” Kawaja said.
He appealed to the President of India “to ensure that the constitution of the Indian Republic is upheld in its entirety and is implemented rigorously throughout India.”