An advocacy group for progressive Catholic religious nuns, brothers and priests in India has asked top Church bodies to oppose openly laws that try to divide citizens in the country.

“The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) are divisive, discriminatory and draconian,” the Forum for Justice and Peace, known as Forum, stated on Feb. 24 at the end of their 14th national convention in Varanasi. Around 50 members of the 500-strong group of priests and nuns working among grass-roots groups met on Feb. 22-24 at Vishwa Jyoti Gurukal to address the theme, ‘Prophetic Response to the Signs of the Times.”

The group describes the citizenship laws as unconstitutional and “obviously part of a larger strategy” to establish a fascist state based on the ‘Hindutva’ ideology. It says the controversial laws have caused discontent forcing hundreds of thousands of women, men and youth to protest all over the country. The CAA, the group says, uses religion that goes against the “secular fabric” of the country.