Indian author and activist Harsh Mander today said that he would protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, if passed, by "officially registering as Muslim".
The human rights activist elaborated on this act of "civil disobedience" in a tweet.
"I will officially register Muslim. I will then refuse to submit any documents to NRC. I will finally demand the same punishment as any undocumented Muslim-detention centre and withdrawn citizenship," he wrote.
"Join this civil disobedience," the tweet added.
The CAB was on Monday passed by the Lok Sabha, with 311 members favouring it and 80 voting against it. It had been introduced by Home Minister Amit Shah and will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha for its nod.
According to the proposed legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014 facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
The activist who works with survivors of mass violence and hunger as well as homeless persons and street children, is a former member of the National Advisory Council. He also served as an IAS officer for nearly two decades, quitting after the Godhra riots in Gujarat.
Mander is currently the Director of The Centre for Equity Studies, a think-tank that he co-founded. According to the organisation's website, it is an "autonomous institution engaged in research and advocacy on issues of social justice".
He is also an Advisory Board member of the international grant-making network founded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations.
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