The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is not something the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has forgotten about. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is visiting West Bengal, said on Thursday that CAA will be implemented once the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
Addressing a public meeting in Siliguri, Shah said, “Trinamool Congress is spreading rumours that the CAA will not be implemented. Let me tell you today that once the COVID-19 wave is gone, we will implement CAA on the ground and give citizenship rights to our refugee brothers and sisters.”
“Mamata didi only wants the infiltration [to] continue…But TMC people should listen minutely [when I say] that CAA was, is and will be a reality,” he added.
#WATCH TMC is spreading rumours about CAA that it won't be implemented on ground, but I would like to say that we'll implement CAA on ground the moment Covid wave ends...Mamata Didi wants infiltration...CAA was, is & will be a reality:Union Home minister Amit Shah in Siliguri, WB pic.twitter.com/E1rYvN9bHM
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2022
Why is West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee against CAA? And what does its implementation mean for the state? We take a look.
The Act that left India divided
The CAA, which was enacted in 2019, promises citizenship to non-Muslim minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians – who migrated to India after facing persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan between 24 March 1971 and 31 December 2014.
The Act amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who have stayed in India for five years instead of 11 years.
The CAA is aimed to benefit those who were “forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the grounds of religion”.
The opposition to CAA
After the Act was passed on 12 December 2019, what followed was months of unparalleled protests across India, one of the largest the country has seen since Independence. Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, where Muslim women staged a protest for four months, became the epicentre of the agitation. The demonstrations took a violent turn in February 2020 when communal riots broke out in northeast Delhi.
Political parties opposing the CAA and protesters believe that Act discriminates against Muslims and does not safeguard all religious minorities. It leaves out Rohingya Muslims and Hindus, who face persecution in Myanmar, minority Muslim sects in Pakistan, and Christian Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Bengal CM’s anti-CAA stand
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has vehemently opposed the CAA. Days after the Act was passed, she led a mega rally in Kolkata saying that the legislation can be enforced in Bengal over her dead body.
“As long as I am alive, I will never implement the citizenship law or NRC [National Register of Citizens] in the state. You can very well dismiss my government or put me behind bars but I will never implement this black law. We will continue to protest democratically till this law is scrapped. If they want to implement it in Bengal they will have to do it over my dead body,” she had said. The Centre had first said that a citizens register would be implemented across India but later backtracked.
In January 2020, Banerjee passed a resolution against CAA in the state Assembly, joining a league of other states like Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Telangana who have opposed the law.
Now she is once again clashing with Shah over his latest claim about the implementation of the Act.
Slamming the government over the CAA, Banerjee asked, “They are talking about CAA. Then those who elected the PM and CMs were not citizens of this country?”
“No National Register of Citizens [NRC] and National Population Register [NPR] and CAA will happen,” the chief minister declared.
The refugees of Bengal
West Bengal has witnessed the highest rate of migration in the country through its long borders with Bangladesh (2,216.7 kilometres) and Nepal (96 kilometres). Apart from the two big migrations that took place from Bangladesh in 1947 and 1971, there has been a steady influx of people crossing over into the state.
According to 2018 National Crime Records Bureau data, the number of Bangladeshi nationals who overstayed beyond the period of their visa validity after entering India legally during 2017, 2018 and 2019 stood at 25,942, 49,645 and 35,055 respectively. West Bengal reported the highest number – 661 –of foreigners convicted under the Foreigners Act 1946 and Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939.
According to the BJP, there are “one crore Hindu refugees” and “one crore infiltrators” in the state, and the party wants to “prevent West Bengal from turning into West Bangladesh”.
The ruling parties in the state have been more tolerant toward refugees. During the Left Front rule, the state government set up a separate department for refugee rehabilitation. The Trinamool Congress government regularised 92 refugee colonies in November 2019.
The Muslim vote and CAA
Muslims constitute around 27 per cent of the population of Bengal; that percentage has now risen to 30. They play a key role in Banerjee’s electoral success.
This was evident in both the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 state Assembly polls.
In 130 of the 294 constituencies in the state, Muslims play a decisive role. Banerjee led in 98 of the 130 constituencies and 60 of the 74 constituencies, clearly pointing to the firm Muslim support for her in the Lok Sabha elections, according to a report in Frontline.
With Congress not making any ground, the Muslim vote transferred to Trinamool in last year’s polls as well. “Bengal’s Muslims were alarmed by the party’s (BJP) promise of a communal citizenship test or National Register of Citizens aimed exclusively at them. So much so that even Muslims in Bengal’s only two Muslim majority districts voted, for the first time, as a bloc behind the Trinamool,” reports Scroll.in.
The BJP’s CAA push worked in favour of Banerjee. The TMC has returned to power winning 213 of the 292 seats on offer. The BJP got 77.
Supporters of CAA in Bengal
In Bengal, where large protests were seen against the CAA, the Matuas, a minority Dalit Hindu group with roots in Bangladesh, and Rajbanshis, a numerically smaller group partly comprising Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, want the Act to be implemented.
For years, the Matuas have been demanding an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 2003, whose provisions made it difficult for refugees to get citizenship. They now have their hopes pinned on CAA. The delay, however, has left them upset and even cost the BJP a few seats in the last election.
Of the 32 seats across North 24 Parganas and Nadia where the Matuas are the dominating factor, the BJP won 12, while 20 went to the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 state Assembly elections, reports ThePrint.
The Rajbanshi population has been voting for the BJP for the past six to seven years and did so even in the past election. They want refugees to be identified under the CAA.
The delay in the CAA has put pressure on the BJP with even Prime Minister Narendra Modi trying to placate the Matuas by holding meetings with them. He met members of the community last March during his visit to Bangladesh.
The BJP had promised to pass CAA in its first Cabinet meeting if elected to power. However, that was not to be.
Now, Amit Shah during his first visit to West Bengal since the state elections has once again raked up the issue. But with Banerjee at the helm it’s going to be no easy task.
With inputs from agencies
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May 06, 2022 at 02:47PM
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