BJP brings CAA back in political discourse

After a lull of more than three months, BJP has brought CAA into political discourse in a big way as parties gear for upcoming polls in Bihar and West Bengal

The party has, however, still refrained from raising the bogey of NRC at the national level, a pitch that coupled with aggressive campaigning for and against CAA had triggered massive protests between December and February, also culminating into Delhi riots.

But the attempt to send a message to the core constituency is very much clear in the tone and tenor, whose decibels differ according to different needs of the constituency.

So while it was somewhat muted in Bihar, where NDA is led by JDU’s Nitish Kumar, who has not been very kind to such aggressive pitch, which play on the nerve of any community, the BJP has sharp edges to campaign on CAA in West Bengal, where riding on hard-line Hindutva plank, it seeks to oust Mamata Banerjee in 2021 assembly polls.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who has often accused Banerjee of doing "politics of appeasement”, on Tuesday asked her to come clean on why she is opposing the CAA.

“You are opposing the CAA which is pro refugees but once the votes will be counted in Bengal you will see people of West Bengal will make you Rajnaitik Sharnatri (political refugees)," Shah said, going ballistic against Banerjee, whom the BJP has sought as a politician only caring for Muslim votes. Shah projected CAA as fulfilment of a promise made in 1947 to Indians, who went to Pakistan at the time of partition.

Before the West Bengal Jansamvad Virtual Rally, Shah in his June 8 virtual rally for Patna, mainly pitched on pro-poor schemes besides Swadeshi and Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign of Modi government. He also spoke at length over the financial help extended by Centre cyclone relief work in Odisha and the work done for migrants during COVID-19 crisis.

In Odisha, Muslim population is just 2.2 per cent and a polarised campaign on emotive issues like CAA and Triple Talaq does not resonate there.

Muslims form 27 per cent of electorates in West Bengal, where citizenship is a sensitive issue as the state shares a porous border with Bangladesh from where a large number of migrants including Hindus have come.

In Bihar with 17 per cent Muslim population, where Shah addressed the first virtual rally on June 7, the fulfilment of core promises of Ram Temple, CAA, triple talaq and the abrogation of Article 370, were substantial part of his speech.

Besides University campuses, Muslim localities have been nerve centres of anti-CAA protests in the country.

When Shah last spoke in detail on the CAA nearly three months back on March 13 while replying to a debate on Delhi violence in Rajya Sabha, he was conciliatory in approach saying he would like to tell "my Muslim brothers and sisters” that false propaganda is being spread on the issue of CAA.

This was after the country had seen unrest over the issue for nearly two months, which the BJP, alleged, was instigated by the Opposition.

More than two and half months after that Shah on May 30 on Modi 2.0 government completing one year, in a write up said that the BJP-led central government implemented every promise in its manifesto and took several historic decisions like abolition of Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu & Kashmir, paving the way for construction of Ram Temple, liberating Muslim women from the curse of triple talaq and giving citizenship rights to deprived sections of society through CAA.