CAA: Don’t let the divide grow deep

On Monday, the Narendra Modi government took a controversial step further deepening the fissure lines in Indian society - it announced the rules for implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which was passed by the Indian parliament four years ago in 2019.

The CAA was framed to provide citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists who had fled from countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014.

What has raised the hackles of non-BJP parties in India is the deliberate exclusion of Muslims from the ambit of the Act.

There are of course Muslims who have fled their home countries and come to India with a deep faith in its secular credentials and the CAA comes as a rude shock for them as it plays on the principle of ‘exclusion’ of a particular section of the minorities.

The Opposition parties also suspect a deliberate move to create a wedge between different communities by implementing the CAA just ahead of the polls; right-wing outfits could harp on divisive issues which could lead to a much feared polarising of the voting population and prove advantageous to pro-Hindutva parties.

The government has been doing its best to allay concerns that the Act is against the Muslims and could lead to deportation of illegal immigrants.

However, its decisions in the past ten years and the not so disguised moves to trample on the rights of the minorities, have created a lurking suspicion in their minds that this Act could in the long run prove prejudicial to their interests.

What has further left the excluded minorities worried is the anxiety that if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comes to power after the Lok Sabha polls, due in a month from now, there could be attempts to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC), another controversial move which has so far been implemented only in Assam where a BJP government is in place.

Many decades ago, the architect of the Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar wrote that ‘I want all people to be Indians first, Indian last and nothing else but Indians’.

He and other founding fathers who toiled for Independence from the British yoke and shed blood for it, wanted every Indian to look beyond caste, community and religion as they went about the momentous task of nation building in those nascent years after freedom was achieved.

And people in those initial decades after Independence hardly had time to deliberate and differ on their faith and their Gods as they devoted themselves with all their might to the well-being of the young nation.

This unity has been increasingly under attack in recent decades as politicians set out to divide people on religious lines and draw electoral benefits.

There are apprehensions that legislation like CAA and NRC will in the long run, end up pulling different sections of Indian society apart creating barriers which our freedom fighters would have sneered on.

‘Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization,’ wrote the Mahatma, who did his best to unite Hindus and Muslims in the aftermath of partition but ultimately fell to the bullets of an assassin.

In a country with a multi-hued fabric of cultures, religions, traditions and beliefs, survival and progress are intricately linked to the ability to be large-hearted and recognise the intrinsic goodness in people despite differences of faith and caste.

It’s the unity of purpose and the unity of the people which can create wonders as we race to join the comity of developed nations; and the last thing we need as we move towards that goal are subtle attempts to play on our differences and whittle down our resolve to make a difference in the country we so much love.