Government Must Guarantee the Protection of Citizenship of Every Indian

The Union Government must guarantee the protection of the citizenship of every Indian, said MK Faizy, National President of the Social Democratic Party of India. He stressed that the constitutional principle of equal citizenship for all must be upheld without compromise. The government’s reported position that an Indian Passport is merely a travel document, together with the recent debates surrounding citizenship documentation, has heightened public concern across the country. While citizenship documents and identity documents may have distinct legal status, millions of citizens possessing passports and other government issued records remain uncertain about which documents would ultimately be accepted in any future citizenship verification process. The continuing debates on the NRC, the Citizenship Amendment Act, and special electoral roll verification exercises have further intensified this uncertainty.

MK Faizy stated that the real issue is not the legal status of any single document but the growing sense of insecurity among citizens regarding the protection of their constitutional rights. He emphasized that no genuine citizen should face anxiety, discrimination, exclusion, or denial of rights because of documentation gaps, poverty, migration, or historical deficiencies in record keeping. The Government has a constitutional obligation to establish robust legal and institutional safeguards that protect every citizen’s citizenship and reinforce public confidence in the constitutional guarantee of equal citizenship.