Media professionals issue statement of solidarity amid anti-CAA protests, ask govt to 'refrain from attacking students'; full text

As simultaneous protests raged in multiple cities on Thursday with thousands-strong crowds of students, activists and others defying prohibitory orders to voice their dissent against the newly amended citizenship law, 164 media professionals and communicators issued a statement in firm solidarity with students and protesters across the country.The media professionals and communicators, in their joint statement, called the CAA and NRC "an attack on the very soul of India and the legacy of the freedom movement". They added that students and others have a right to resist and "rise in defence of constitutional principles". The statement goes on to "explicitly condemn the violence unleashed on protesters" as well as "the hate and abuse unleashed by troll armies". The joint statement called upon the government to "immediately refrain from attacking students and other protesters peacefully resisting the CAA and NRC" and to review its decision and work for a strong, pluralistic and secular India.Here is this full text of the statement:STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY AND PROTESTWe, the undersigned group of media professionals and communicators, jointly issue this statement in firm solidarity with students and protestors across the country — especially of Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University — who were subjected to police excesses and brutality when they rose to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) and the imminent nation-wide National Register of Citizens, and register our protest at the CAA-NRC move of the Government of India.We believe that the CAA-NRC violate the fundamental principles of our Constitution, indeed the very foundation of India which chose to be a secular state in 1947, and overturn the basis of citizenship in the country. Religion and ethnicity were consciously discarded as determinants of citizenship or rights of Indians while adopting the Constitution; it expressly disallows discrimination on these — and other — grounds. When the CAA-NRC is in full force, Muslims, several tribal communities and Indians without government-determined documents may not qualify as citizens. Indians would become non-Indians, made refugees in their own nation and forced into an uncertain future.The CAA-NRC is an attack on the very soul of India, on the legacy of the freedom movement which was multi-religious and multi-cultural (today is the 92nd commemoration of the hanging of Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Roshan Singh for their anti-British activities), and on the inclusive and pluralistic ethos of post-independence years. The NRC exercise in Assam has revealed the terrible human cost, besides logistical nightmares and expenses, of dividing people by religion or ethnicity and linking citizenship to documents.Students and others have a right to resist CAA-NRC and rise in defence of Constitutional principles. Those who protested and resisted did so — and continue to do so — on the basis of rights and responsibilities given to us in the Constitution. The right to dissent is an inalienable aspect of our rights as citizens. This is best encouraged among the young in our campuses. Instead, the police in Delhi and Aligarh brutally beat students, fired tear-gas shells, lathi-charged them and shot at them; the police in other places have clamped down on citizens’ right to assemble and protest by invoking Section 144 of the CrPC.We explicitly condemn the violence unleashed on protestors during the course of these protests as well as the hate-abuse unleashed online by troll armies on social media platforms. We unequivocally condemn the few instances of violence that occurred during the protests which, prima facie, were not traced by the Delhi Police to the protesting students.We call upon the Government to immediately refrain from attacking students and other protestors peacefully resisting the CAA-NRC across the country. We call upon the Government to desist from invoking Section 144 and allow Indians to exercise their constitutional right of assembly, freedom of expression and dissent. We call upon the Government to review its decision on CAA-NRC, focus on providing education-jobs-healthcare for all, and work for a strong, pluralistic, secular India.Signed on December 19, 2019:1) Aafreen Kidwai2) Aakash Karkare3) Aarti Dabas4) Abhra Das5) Aditi Mittal6) Aditi Seshadri7) Ain Haider8) Ajay Norohna9) Akanksha Bajpai10) Akansha Negi11) Alka Khandelwal12) Aliya Khan13) Amrita Rajput14) Aneesha Henry15) Aniketh Mendonca16) Anila Nair17) Anita Vasudeva18) Anjali Awasthi19) Anjali Singh20) Ankita Maneck21) Ankita Agarwal22) Ankita Sorot23) Antara Kashyap24) Anubhuti Matta25) Anuradha Nagar26) Anushka Rovshen27) Aparna Shukla28) Apoorva Rao29) Aquila Khan30) Arshi Khan31) Atul Kasare32) Avehi Menon33) Ayu Bhagat34) Aziza Syed35) Bhoomi Mistry36) Brenna Ribeiro37) Chandani Ahlawat Dabas38) Chatura Rao39) Dalreen Ramos40) Darshana Jain41) Deepika Khatri42) Deepika Lal43) Devika Bahl44) Dhara Kanani45) Dimple Sharma46) Divya Rao47) Faiza Ahmad Khan48) Farah Gulamwaris Thakur49) Farida Patharia50) Farzeen Khan51) Gauri Vij52) Hansa Thapliyal53) Himanshi Dhawan54) Hitarth Desai55) Inayat Sood56) Jayati Vora57) Jeroo Mulla58) Jerry Pinto59) Joeyta Bose60) Jovita Aranha61) Kajri Babbar62) Kanika Rajani63) Karen D’souza64) Karuna Sharma65) Kashish Juneja66) Ketaki67) Kirti Vij Makhijani68) Krithi Sundar69) Kruti Kothari70) Kunjarani D’souza71) Layal Ayoub72) Lubaina Bandukwala73) Madhuri Mohindar74) Maheep Dhillon75) Maleeva Rebello76) Mamta Kalambe77) Mayanka Goel78) Meena Thaker Pillai79) Megha Bhattacharya80) Megha Subramanian81) Mimansha82) Minnie Vaid83) Monica James84) Monica Wahi85) Mousufa Mukadam86) Mugdha Singh87) Mukta Dhond88) Nancy Adjania89) Nandini Ramnath90) Nandini Shrikent91) Natasha Trivedi92) Navya Sahai Bhatnagar93) Nayana Agrawal94) Nilesh Correia95) Niloufer Sagar96) Nilofer97) Nirmita Gupta98) Nirmiti Kamat99) Parth Vyas100) Parul Rana101) Pooja Raheja102) Prarthana Uppal103) Prateek Gautam104) Prathamesh Kharatmal105) Pria Somiah106) Priyanka Arora107) Purvi Malhotra108) Radhika Makker109) Ragini Khushwaha110) Rajat Zamde111) Rashmi Mehta112) Reebu Tandon113) Reena Rai114) Reshmi Chakraborty115) Riddhi Savla116) Rucha Pathak117) Rujuta Sabnis118) Rupali Arte119) Sakshi Sharma120) Saloni Jain121) Sameera Khan122) Sanjukta Sharma123) Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh124) Sapana Jaiswal125) Sara Shaikh126) Sarojini Pradhan127) Savitri Medhatul128) Shalini Singh129) Sharanya Misra Sharma130) Sheetal Jhaveri Mehta131) Sheetal Mehta Karia132) Shradha Sukumaran133) Shraddha Agarwal134) Shraddha Sharma135) Shreya Khare136) Shuchi Talati137) Shyma Rajagopal138) Siddhi Patel139) Simran Dang140) Smitha Menon141) Smriti Jain142) Smruti Koppikar143) Sowjanya Kashyap144) Srushti Iyer145) Sruti Visweswaran146) Stefanie Samuel147) Sukanya Deb148) Sukhada Tatke149) Surekha S150) Sunayana Sadarangani151) Suryasarathi Bhattacharya152) Swati Ali153) Tejal Pandey154) Tihany Sengupta155) Trupti Kanade156) Vedika Singhania157) Vishnu Bagdawala158) Vrushali Telang159) Yakuta Poonawalla160) Yashaswini Raghunandan161) Zahra Gabuji162) Zara Mann163) Zulfia WarisThe full text has been reproduced and has not been edited by Firstpost for style and clarity