Maharashtra IGP, Abdur Rahman quits over ’communal, unconstitutional’ CAB

mangaloretoday / India today

Mumbai, Dec 12: A Maharashtra cadre IPS officer on Wednesday took to Twitter to announce his decision to resign from the service as a protest against the "blatantly communal and unconstitutional" Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Abdur Rahman, posted as special IGP in Mumbai, issued a statement saying he won’t be attending office from Thursday. Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved the bill, which was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday.

The IPS officer, who is posted to the State Human Rights Commission in Mumbai as Special IGP according to sources is facing a departmental enquiry for misconduct.

In a tweet posted at around 20:01 pm, Rahman said, "The #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 is against the basic feature of the Constitution. I condemn this Bill. In civil disobedience, I have decided not to attend office from tomorrow. I am finally quitting the service."

The second tweet posted by the officer came par around 20:06 pm said

"This Bill is against the religious pluralism of India. I request all justice loving people to oppose the bill in a democratic manner. It runs against the very basic feature of the Constitution."

"During the passage of the Bill, wrong facts, misleadingly information and wrong logic were produced by Home Minister Amit Shah. History was distorted. The idea behind the bill is to stoke fear in Muslims and divide the nation," he said.

The Bill violates Article 14 of the Constitution and is against its basic feature, he said. "It discriminates persons on the basis of religion. It’s an act to demonise 200 million Muslims in India," he added.

In a letter, which sought the status of his voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), Abdur Rahman said, "The proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 clearly discriminates against people belonging to Muslim community. The bill is totally unconstitutional and against very basic feature of equality before law. I condemn the bill."

A senior police official said Rahman applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in August and was awaiting a decision on his application.