The saffron party is planning to convince people regarding the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) religiously. Combining religion with politics, the Punjab unit of the BJP has asked its leaders and workers to prepare a list of local prominent religious activists who could convince the people on the CAA, along with National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the National Population Register (NPR).
Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma, in his meeting with various party wings on Friday, directed them to prepare a list of local prominent religious activist to seek their support to make the people aware about the CAA, NRC and NPR.
Besides, the party workers have also been asked to organize camps in their respective areas to make the people aware about the CAA, NRC and NPR.
The state party chief has also asked the participants to mobilize the masses in favour of the CAA, by asking them to give a miss call on ‘88662-88662’ to support the CAA. The move comes at a time when the Delhi election results are being seen as a vote against the controversial act.
In fact, BJP’s ally in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has also taken a different stand on the citizenship act, and in protest decided against contesting the Delhi polls citing “ideological differences” between the two over the CAA-NRC. After voting in favour of CAA in the Parliament, the SAD has now been demanding to include the Muslims also in the new citizenship Act.
The BJP-led central Government decision to implement CAA along with NRC and NPR has evoked countrywide protests. The new law seeks to provide citizenship to illegal migrants from Buddhist, Hindu, Sikhs, Jain, Parsi and Christian faiths, who have come to India from the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, on or before December 31, 2014.
Protests against the CAA and NRC began from the North East, and expanding to new cities and towns every day. The police crackdowns on protests, especially in Delhi, have only served to escalate the anti-CAA movement further bringing more and more people out onto the streets.
Other than the leaders from opposition parties, several prominent personalities from different fields, rallied behind the anti-CAA movement, with several non-BJP ruled states declaring that they will not implement the new Citizenship Act or the NRC, with Punjab along with Kerala also passing Assembly resolutions against the Act.
However, the Central Government is adamant, with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah repeatedly making it clear that the decision would not be revoked.