Chandigarh: Congress MP from Anandpur Sahib, Punjab, Manish Tewari Saturday said the “Citizenship Amendment Act could be the precursor to the BJP-led central government declaring India a Hindu rashtra”.
“It seems only a matter of time and things are building up to it,” Tewari said, while answering a query after his address at the ongoing Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh. The three-day festival, organised by the Punjab government, began Friday.
The Act came in for severe criticism at the session on ‘Ek Aur Satyagraha Bharat Ki Aatma Ke Liye’.
Tewari said that in accordance with international laws, it is every country’s duty to give shelter to refugees without any religious bias as there is a difference between refugees and illegal immigrants.
Why a new Act to grant citizenship, asks Ravish Kumar
Addressing the session, renowned journalist Ravish Kumar said the BJP has not been able to explain why there was a need for a new Act when the matter of citizenship was already settled by an older Act.
He said the reason why the BJP is being criticised is because the Act uses religion as a deciding factor to grant citizenship.
“Was there really a need to refer to religions in the Act,” he asked, adding that India as a nation belongs to all its citizens and “dissent is not disloyalty to the government”.
Kumar, a journalist with NDTV India, further said the BJP has started a new trend of sending neither partymen or spokespersons to defend their policies as the task has now been relegated to “thinkers”.
Also read: UK, US, Canada warn citizens against travelling in NE amid Citizenship Act protests
‘Indira Gandhi sowed seeds of hypernationalism’
Defending the Act, Dr Geeta Bhatt, member of the academic council of Delhi University, said the law had nothing to do with religion but was only done to undo a historical wrong. She said that a fake narrative was being generated that India was becoming a “theocratic” state.
In a separate session on ‘Jingoism and Hyper-Nationalism — An Indian Perspective’, RSS ideologue Desh Ratan Nigam said the “Indian Constitution was never meant to be secular” and that the word ‘secular’ was a “back-door entry into the Constitution during the Emergency”.
The Constitution originally was not supposed to be secular and it was only with 42nd Amendment in 1976, the word ‘secular’ was inserted, Nigam said. “Original draft of the Constitution had references to Ram, Sita and Guru Nanak,” he added.
Talking about hyper-nationalism, for which the BJP is blamed, Nigam said the seeds for the idea of hyper-nationalism were “sown” by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He claimed that it was Gandhi, who had introduced the idea of nationalism by incorporating Article 51A in the Constitution.
Nigam also added that there is no concept of hyper-nationalism.
“The word is ‘Bharatiyata’, which encompasses all dimensions of cultural beliefs where no-one is superior and all are equal. Jingoism and hyper-nationalism are Western concepts and used to make us feel bad about taking pride in our history and heritage,” he said.
‘India will endure onslaught by communal forces’
Addressing the session on hyper-nationalism, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said Indian ethos is all about moderation and will certainly endure the present onslaught by communal forces.
“Any nationalism, which teaches me to treat my nation above God, is not acceptable to me,” she said, adding that aggressive dependence on religion demonstrates abject failure of the ruling party on all major fronts.
She further said the BJP-led NDA was creating an “imagined dark force or enemy” to justify its actions, adding that it will take some time before people realise what was happening.
Also read: Jamia cancels exams, declares holiday until 5 January over citizenship law protests