The BJP will be going ahead with its efforts at canvassing support for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) amid continuing protests against it. Union Home Minister and current national president of the party, Amit Shah, is scheduled to address a massive rally on the issue in Vaishali in Bihar on Thursday.
Sources in the BJP said the meeting in a State where BJP’s own ally, Chief Minister and Janata Dal (U) leader Nitish Kumar, has declared that the CAA needs to be debated in the Assembly and shut down prospects of any exercise for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not only important in itself but also has great symbolism.
While the party is going full steam ahead with its plans, it was also on the backfoot after the party’s West Bengal unit chief and Lok Sabha MP, Dilip Ghosh, made laudatory references to the way the Uttar Pradesh government handled protesters against CAA. Officially, the death toll in the violence in U.P. totalled 20.
“The party is not supporting the statement, nor does it agree with it. However, what kind of posters have been raised against [Prime Minister] Modiji and [Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister] Yogiji, and also about Hindus by so-called intellectuals in Mumbai and other places? You cannot even read them,” said party general secretary Anil Jain. He also said Microsoft chief Satya Nadella’s statement linking immigrants to the CAA was ill-informed. “I would say that all those fighting are not properly educated about the bill. CAA is not something that is against anyone, its not against any citizen of this country. This is to give relief to those who are persecuted in the neighbouring countries,” he said.
