Janata Dal (United) now divided over CAB

The Janata Dal (United) appears to be sharply divided on the issue of supporting the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Parliament. A day after the ruling party in Bihar supported the CAB in the Lok Sabha, more and more voices of dissent within the JD (U) have come to the fore.

After the party’s national vice-president Prashant Kishor raised a red flag, former Rajya Sabha member Pavan Verma has now appealed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to reconsider his stand on backing it “as the Bill was unconstitutional, discriminatory and against the unity and harmony of the country.”

“I urge Shri Nitish Kumar to reconsider support to the #CAB in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill is unconstitutional, discriminatory and against the unity and harmony of the country, apart from being against the secular principles of the JD(U). Gandhiji would have strongly disapproved it,” tweeted Verma. The former diplomat-turned-politician invoked Mahatma Gandhi as Nitish, who is also the national president of the JD(U), strongly believes in Gandhian values and secularism.

The JD(U) has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha and six in the Rajya Sabha.

Verma’s tweet comes close on the heels of JD(U) vice-president Prashant Kishor’s tweet late on Monday night which struck a discordant note on the issue of supporting CAB in the Lok Sabha. “Disappointed to see JD(U) supporting #CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion. It’s incongruous with the party’s constitution that carries the word secular thrice on the very first page and the leadership that is supposedly guided by Gandhian ideals,” tweeted Kishor.

The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday late night with 311 MPs voting in favour and 80 members against it.

Another senior member of the party and former IPS officer NK Singh, who has been the founder member of the Samata Party, the earlier avatar of the JD (U), too lodged his protest against the CAB. Presently, the national executive member of the JD (U), Singh, who retired from the CBI, tweeted, “Yesterday, a black day in post-Independence era: Leaving behind an India of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel of secular pluralistic, democratic India, a first step towards a HINDU Rashtra of Golwalkar, Savarkar & RSS: Towards a Hindu Pakistan: But signs they won’t succeed,” the senior JD (U) leader tweeted.