Madhya Pradesh BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi, a former Congressman who had last year broken ranks with his party while voting on a crucial criminal law amendment bill, lashed out at the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and said his party should either respect the Constitution by not formulating divisive laws based on religion, or tear it up and throw it away.
Abandoning the party’s national line, the Maihar legislator highlighted how the law had polarised villages, where people who had once been friends and neighbours refused to even look at each other now.
“Where there are internal disputes, peace can’t prevail. We talk about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) on the one hand, and on the other divide the country based on religion. The country can’t be run like this,” he asserted.
Stating that he hailed from a rural area and understood villages well, he said, “The poor are still roaming around to get Aadhaar cards made; collecting so many papers just to prove citizenship will be impossible.”
Mr. Tripathi, who was one of only two BJP MLAs to vote for the Criminal Law ( Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2019, and had termed the vote a ghar waapsi (homecoming) at the time, also contended that there was rising unemployment, poverty and illiteracy in the country, distinctly countering the Centre’s narrative on the socio-economic progress made in recent years. “Doing vote-bank politics and dividing people on religious lines is not appropriate for today. Where there is no brotherhood, there is no progress,” he said.
Welcoming the BJP MLA’s comments, State Congress spokesman Durgesh Sharma said, “Every Indian who cares for the country and the Constitution will surely speak out against the CAA and the nationwide implementation of the National Register of Citizens. Mr. Tripathi’s opposition is a protest against the divisive ideology of the BJP. And his stand is in the interest of the country”.
Mr. Tripathi’s comments critical of the CAA add to the BJP’s troubles in the State, where it is already grappling with a spate of resignations at its minority cell over the contentious new law since December. Last Friday, 67 members quit the party in Indore and hundreds of workers had earlier quit the party in Khargone, Guna, Burhanpur, Bhopal and Satna districts. The BJP’s State secretary Akram Khan has also put in his papers.
