Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen says CAA unconstitutional, should be scrapped

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) violates the basic provisions of the Indian constitution. He said that the CAA should be turned down by the Supreme Court on the grounds of unconstitutionality as certain types of fundamental rights that link citizenship with religious differences can't exist.

"My reading of the (amended) law is that it violates the provision of the Constitution," he said. Sen highlighted that citizenship on the basis of religion had been a matter of discussion in the constituent assembly and it was finally decided that "using religion for this kind of discrimination" would not be acceptable. Sen was speaking at the Infosys Science Foundation's Infosys Prize 2019 in Bengaluru.

Sen, however, said that a Hindu who is persecuted in any country outside India deserves sympathy and his or her case has to be taken into account.

"It (consideration for citizenship) has to be independent of religion but take cognisance of the sufferings and other issues into account," Mr Sen said.

On the violence that erupted in the Jawaharlal nehru University (JNU) campus, he said that the lacuna was on the part of the university administration who couldn't prevent outsiders from entering the campus.

Edited with agency inputs

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