INDIAN BJP Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to finally implement the discriminatory and anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)-2019. Besides many other anti-Muslim actions, Indian Government undertook in the last few months, CAA-2019 is being used by Modi Government as a tool for the election victory for BJP in the forthcoming 2024-Elections. In 2019 Elections, BJP promised the Indian Hindu majority for taking two major anti Muslims steps; a) Amendment in the Indian Constitution through Citizenship Amendment Act to declare some Muslim communities as Non-Indian and rehabilitating the Hindus and some other minorities who have migrated from some Muslim countries at the cost of these Muslims and b) undoing Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian Constitution to revoke the Special Status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Upon its election victory in 2019 Elections, BJP Government under Modi immediately implemented both promises by amending Indian Constitution. With regards to IIOJK, the Jammu and Kashmir Amendment Act-2019 was implemented on October 31, 2019, however, CAA-2019 was passed but its implementation was differed owing to massive communal rights which took place in entire India, killing hundreds of Muslims. As a result of CAA-2019, Hindu mobs especially the RSS militants started attacking the Muslim population throughout India, putting their houses and properties on fire and asking them to leave India or else accept Hindu religions as their belief.
As per Indian media, “The Modi government announces implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act. It was an integral part of BJP’s 2019 manifesto. This will pave (the) way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India.” The Indian Home Ministry said that CAA would remove legal barriers to citizenship for refugees, giving a “dignified life”. Nevertheless, Indian Muslims who have been Indian nationals for centuries are the real target and will be the main sufferers of this Indian discriminatory action. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)-2019, though primarily targeting Muslim population of India, has brought total unrest among the Indian socio-political segment. There have been protests all over India against this discriminatory law. CAA has frightened the Indian Muslims; since it has its linkages with India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC). The NRC is part of Indian Government “to identify and weed out people” mainly Muslims from all over India, starting from Assam, where 1.9 million people were declared non-Indian in 2019. It will be implemented throughout India in the form of CAA.
In entire India, masses are protesting against this amendment and NRC on three logical bases. A) It is against the essence of the Indian Constitution. The Indian Constitution grants citizenship to all Indians without any religious discrimination. As per the legal experts, CAA is a contradiction to the basic principles of Indian Constitution. CAA is a violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. Article 14 of the Indian constitution guarantees the right to equality, thus religion cannot be made as the basis of citizenship of India. The Indian legal experts say, “Our constitution prohibits any discrimination based on religion. By distinguishing illegal immigrants based on religion, CAA violates the basic structure of the Indian constitution.” The legal fraternity of India declare it as extra-terrestrial and unusual development like transplanting Indian Constitution.
B) CAA is purely directed against Muslims, not other minorities. The Indian Muslims fear that, after imposition of CAA, Indian Government may expel them from India in any subsequent phase. This is evident from the statement of Amit Shah, the Indian Home Minister, who clearly said, “Whoever is not eligible to be included in the NRC will be sent out of the country.” Besides, the ruthless reaction of Indian security forces, which is purely directed against Muslims. In UP, the police officers while beating the Muslims have been asking Muslims victims to leave India and go to Pakistan. Besides, after the barbaric violence against students of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University in 2019/2020, the university administration told students that, if you file any official complaint against police, you will be expelled from university and “charged under the National Security Act.”
C) CAA is indeed an outcome of the Hindutva ideology of BJP and RSS. Over the past few decades, Hindutva ideology has slowly and gradually ingressed into a huge segment of upper class Hindus of India and poised the Indian society with hate culture towards all minorities. Though, currently this hate culture is centred against the Muslims, however, subsequently it will target other minorities, since the agenda is converting India as Hindu state under the ideology of Hindutva. Hindutva is a Hindu nationalism, coined and nurtured by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923 and championed by RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Sena. The impartial scholars call this as a fascist outfit like Nazis regime of Hitler and Fascist regime of Mussolini, adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony. Hindutva ideology has a lot of resemblance with the Zionist ideology of the Israeli State, which has unleashed a reign of terror in the Middle East against Palestinians and killed over 32000 Palestinians since October 2023.
Kapil Komireddi wrote a very insightful article about the real motives behind abrogation of Article 370 in Indian occupied Kashmir by the Indian Government. Entitled as, “The Kashmir crisis isn’t about territory. It’s about a Hindu victory over Islam”. With the slogan of democracy dies in the darkness, the prestigious American daily, ‘The Washington Post’ published this article with many insightful revelations. Professor Kate Sullivan de Estrada, Director of South Asian Studies in University of Oxford has very keenly observed the political and social developments in India over the years. Seeing the mass mobilization of Indian masses against CAA, the author is of the opinion that, “Modi’s ‘Hindutva face” is just like ‘failed transplant’, hence rejected by the majority of Indian population. Despite countrywide protests against CAA, Indian Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah have reiterated that, ‘Indian government would not budge an inch from implementation of CAA-2019.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
Email: drmkedu@gmail.com
views expressed are writer’s own.
