‘CAB is the result of BJP’S divisive policy’
Former Assam chief minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi says that support lent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, or CAB, by the Northeastern parties is due to the lack of agency that comes with being a small state. He adds that the bill is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S “divisive policy” of “one nation, one religion”. Edited excerpts:
Do you feel that the Congress has been ineffective in taking the lead on resistance to CAB in Assam and at the Centre? There should ideally be no question of leading in this case; this is a spontaneous movement, and the impact in such cases is different. What we are seeing on the streets of Assam, and other parts of the region today, is an outpouring of the people. Everyone has come together to stand against the Bill. I do believe that the Congress needs to play an active role and it has, but taking a lead could be counterproductive.
The BJP has pointed to former PM Dr Manmohan Singh’s speech on December 18, 2003, when he spoke as a leader of the Opposition about the need for a CAB.
The law exists; the refugee policy part of the Indian law is to provide asylum to the persecuted. While an applicant needed to be a resident of India for 11 years for naturalisation, it is now 5 years. While the Congress had no religion-based discrimination, the BJP is discriminating against the Muslims. In Pakistan, Ahmediyas are persecuted, but the government is not giving them refuge...the BJP says that we appease the Muslims, but look at all the refugee colonies across the country. Who lives in them; most of them are Hindus. While we followed the principles of the Mahatma, Maulana Adbul Kalam Azad, Babasa
heb Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru, the BJP is following the principles of Jinnah....
Several Lok Sabha MPS from the Northeast backed the bill, including the Naga People’s Front which had left the Northeast Democratic Alliance...
All of these parties were opposed to the bill a few months ago. But they must have been managed by the BJP. These are all small states, and perhaps they needed to compromise.
Assam minister Himanta
Biswa Sarma has said that the BJP was voted to power even when it put CAB in its manifesto?
Of course the BJP’S manifesto mentioned the CAB. But there were many other points in the same manifesto -- promise to check price rise, revive the economy, provide jobs and stem black money. They also promised to give Scheduled Tribes status to six communities. But they have chosen to concentrate only on the divisive agenda. The criticism in Assam is that the CAB will undo the NRC {National Register of Citizens}, by accepting the Hindus left out of it. Our stand is that the people who were left out of the NRC, and were rightful citizens, should be accepted by the BJP.