Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has defied its own Constitution and Secular status by approving the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which gives Indian citizenship to immigrants from three neighboring countries-but not if they are Muslim. Hundreds of people joined a hunger strike, while scores have been killed in protests all over India. Political pundits believe that the controversial CAA will marginalize non-Hindu voices in one of India’s most ethnically diverse regions. Narendra Modi has described the CAA as a means of protecting vulnerable groups from persecution, but critics say the true target is India’s minority Muslim population and risks undermining the country’s secular constitution.
Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition, Congress Party, stated: “Today marks a dark day in the constitutional history of India. The passage of the citizenship amendment bill marks the victory of narrow-minded and bigoted forces over India’s pluralism.”
Ironically, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor declared that the CAA will be a victory of the thoughts of Muhammad Ali Jinnah over Mahatma Gandhi. Participating in the debate on the contentious Bill, Shashi Tharoor said the proposed legislation goes against the basic principle of the Constitution. 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, and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be given Indian citizenship.
The two-nation theory is the basis of the creation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It states that Muslims and Hindus are two separate nations by every definition; that Muslims have their own customs, religion, and from every point of view like social, moral Muslims are different from Hindus therefore, Muslims should be able to have their own separate homeland in the Muslim majority areas of India, in which Islam can be practiced as the dominant religion.
Many in Assam and Tripura, states in India’s northeast, also fear that it could see large numbers of Hindus migrating to the region, outnumbering the region’s 200 distinct indigenous groups and changing its religious and ethnic makeup.
The enactment of CAA is being vehemently reviled both at home and abroad. Five opposition-ruled Indian states have refused to implement the new law, which is a matter of serious embarrassment for the BJP leadership
There are around 16 million Hindus in Bangladesh alone, and naturalizing large numbers of immigrants could also greatly impact employment, government subsidies and education. Critics of the CAA say it is another example of how Modi and his BJP party have pushed an agenda of Hindu nationalism onto secular India, a country of 1.3 billion people, at the expense of its Muslim population. “There is a short-term and long-term objective to polarize India’s voters on the basis of religious lines,” said Harsh Mander, a human rights activist and author. “The BJP and its ideological partner RSS (have) never accepted the constitution and the citizenship of this country and they have the leverage now and the numbers to effectively destroy India’s constitution, recreating India according to their imagination as a Hindu state.”
The bill comes months after Modi’s government stripped the majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status, essentially giving New Delhi more control over the region’s affairs and enabling mass Hindu migration to the region. The entire Valley of Indian Occupied Kashmir is in a state of lockdown since August 5, 2019 for fear of reprisal from the oppressed Kashmiris.
That same month, nearly two million people in Assam were left off a controversial new National Register of Citizens, which critics feared could be used to justify religious discrimination against Muslims in the state.
The enactment of CAA is being vehemently reviled both at home and abroad. Five opposition-ruled Indian states have refused to implement the new law, which is a matter of serious embarrassment for the BJP leadership. international reaction to the new India legislation, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom has criticized the bill as going against India’s secular pluralism and the Indian constitution. It also sought American sanctions against (Amit) Shah, the minister who introduced the bill. The New York Times called the new legislation “divisive”.
“The measure, called the Citizenship Amendment Bill, uses religion as a criterion for determining whether illegal migrants in India can be fast-tracked for citizenship. The bill favours members of all South Asia’s major religions except Islam, and leaders of India’s 200-million-strong Muslim community have called it blatant discrimination. The Washington Post said: “India passes controversial citizenship law excluding Muslim migrants”. It said: “Lawmakers in India on Wednesday passed a fundamental change to its citizenship law to include religion as a criterion for nationality for the first time, deepening concerns that a country founded on secular ideals is becoming a Hindu state that treats Muslims as second-class citizens.”
It further said, “The new legislation creates a path to citizenship for migrants who belong to several South Asian religions but pointedly excludes Islam, the faith practiced by 200 million Indian citizens.”
Bangladesh, which has very close ties with India, is also critical of the new move. In fact, the new legislation has created a diplomatic row between India and Bangladesh. Not only two Bangladeshi ministers cancelled their scheduled visit to India, minority communities in Bangladesh such as Hindus and Buddhists have also rejected the Indian legislation and reference made in the Indian parliament about their persecution.
The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host