Home Minister, Amit Shah has made it clear that the Modi Government will brook no opposition as far as the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 is concerned. As a political party the BJP has shown incredible tenacity in fulfilling its poll promises one by one. The Party believes that if it has been voted to power on the basis of those promises which were widely circulated vide its manifesto then it goes without saying that those must be vigorously pursued. The problem is that the BJP won only 37.36% of the votes totalling 303 seats. The BJP and allies together won 353 seats which is 45% of the 60.37 crore votes that were polled. This means that over 55 % of voters were either split between different political parties that have not formed a united opposition front or they have voted for none of the candidates. This is the travesty of democracy. The Party or alliance partners with the single largest majority get to form the government irrespective of the percentage of votes polled. That Government then implements its political agenda without calling for a national debate. Perhaps a time has come for India’s polity to go for a referendum on a political issue of such far reaching consequences such as the CAA which actually discredits the secular nature of the Indian Constitution by using religion as a criterion for granting Indian citizenship.
The general outcry across the country against the implementation of the CAA followed by the NRC should actually halt the BJP in its tracks, rather than labelling the protestors as anti-nationals, urban naxals and such other pejorative phrases. Although right wing politics seems to have gained ground across the world, such blatant disregard for public opinion and public protests that have now sustained for a month should make any political party step back and reconsider its stance. Instead the BJP led by two of its most voluble top guns seems determined to quash public opinion and voices of dissent. This is exacerbated by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath whose unabashed commitment towards the Hindutva project is a threat to the diversity of India. He has unleashed a reign of terror to silence the protestors in UP and is using the police force for this malevolent objective.
The present protests are a battle to reclaim India’s soul. The BJP instead has taken it as a challenge to its objective of furthering the cause of Hindutva. It is unfortunate that pro-BJP intellectuals are accusing those against the CAA as being ignorant, brainwashed socialists. Not all the people on the streets today are ideological bigots. Many more are out there because they believe in the sanctity of the Indian Constitution, above all. Political egotism will ultimately be defeated by the very process of democracy. No political party can take the voters for granted for too long.