Four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament, the Centre finally implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, and notified the rules facilitating citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. Contrary to the violence and hostility that was shown four years back, the notification was met with a calculated silence all around with a distinct shift in focus -- from the charge of CAA trying to divide the nation based on religion to the delay in notifying the rules.
The reaction nonetheless was a mixed bag. Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut took to Instagram to share a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside Home Minister Amit Shah and wrote ‘CAA’ with emojis of the Indian tricolour. She also shared a message ” “before you form an opinion or emotion about CAA, first understand what it stands for.” There were sections of people that went euphoric over the announcement, while others held steadfast to their opposition, and yet some others stood on the fence. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, once a fierce opponent, maintained that she would oppose CAA if it was found to be discriminatory against groups of people living in India and if it affected the existing citizenship rights, but sought time till Tuesday to offer a detailed opinion after going through the fine print.
The points of contention have been that the Act makes religion a qualifier, secondly, it excludes Muslim migrants from following the same citizenship route and thirdly, it says refugees are eligible for citizenship if they have lived in India for five years, instead of the 11 years mandated earlier. While the same points are moderately debated by critics in the background even now, the timing of bringing in the citizenship law appears to have stumped many.
If we may recall, thousands of people staged a sit-in protest for months at Shaheen Bagh that became the focal point of the campaign against the move. There were also agitations in Bengal and Assam ” two States that were perceived to be majorly impacted by the law, and there were over 200 petitions filed before the Supreme Court. The BJP battled on despite a nationwide outrage, but then suddenly went slow and hit the pause button. The pieces of the puzzle have now fallen in place as it is increasingly clear that the BJP timed it to derive the maximum advantage.
The BJP has timed it to perfection knowing well that whatever opposition comes from the Congress and leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Owaisi and Mamata Banerjee will only benefit Team Modi and help in further polarisation of voters. Whichever way one looks at it, the timing is completely in Modi’s favour, and there is nothing the Opposition could do except give a knee-jerk reaction that people will respond at the elections.
It is to be seen how the Opposition stack up against this strategic power play by the BJP.
