Lucknow University moots idea to include CAA in political science syllabus

The proposal to include CAA as one of the political science papers would have to pass through a series of approvals

Lucknow University (LU) has proposed to introduce Citizenship Amendment Act as a topic for its political science students. LU has floated the idea to introduce the topic as a part of the syllabus of Contemporary Issues in Indian politics paper.

“CAA is a current issue, and as we teach our students about Indian constitution and Indian politics, we must also discuss this contemporary political issue as well,” LU political science head of department (HoD) Shashi Shukla told Business Standard.

She observed that when the erstwhile contemporary issues of ‘mandal’ (reservations) and ‘kamandal’ (temple) had been discussed in the past, then why not CAA.

“We teach them (students) about citizenship, about constitution and everything. Besides, the Citizenship Law has been in existence since 1955 and it has only been amended now in the form of CAA,” she underlined.

Shukla noted CAA had been duly passed in Parliament and as such it was very much a law of the land. “Unless and until, the Supreme Court (SC) does something about it, whether it strikes it down or not, then it would be something different.”

However, the proposal to include CAA as one of the political science papers in LU would have to pass through various stages of approval before it could be included in the syllabus from the next 2020-21 academic session, she informed.

Meanwhile, the department is also planning to organise the annual debate on CAA next month to purportedly foster ‘healthy’ academic discussion among the political science pupils.

Yesterday, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati had criticised the LU proposal regarding the inclusion of CAA as a topic of study.

In her Twitter post, Mayawati had observed while discussions on CAA were okay, yet the move of the LU to include such a ‘controversial and divisive’ Act it in the syllabus was completely wrong and unjustified. She asserted that BSP strongly objected to it and would withdraw it from the syllabus on returning to power in Uttar Pradesh.