scorecardresearch
Friday, March 29, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomeTalk PointAmit Shah CAA brinkmanship: Stoking more trouble or are there ways to...

Amit Shah CAA brinkmanship: Stoking more trouble or are there ways to assuage protesters?

Home Minister Amit Shah has said the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be withdrawn irrespective of people’s protests.

Follow Us :
Text Size:

Home Minister Amit Shah has said the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be withdrawn irrespective of people’s protests. At a pro-CAA rally in Lucknow, Shah attacked Congress for “misleading” people and challenged Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav to a public debate. In the nationwide protests against CAA, 25 people have been killed and more than 100 injured so far.

ThePrint asks: Amit Shah CAA brinkmanship: Stoking more trouble or are there ways to assuage protesters?


Protests not only against CAA but also against NPR & NRC, because Amit Shah has explained chronology many times

Aman Wadud
Lawyer at Gauhati High Court

This is not a mere protest, this is a revolution. A people’s revolution to save the Constitution of India and to live a dignified life, where no one is asked to prove their citizenship in their own motherland. There is no doubt that the CAA is against core constitutional values, but this nationwide protest is not only against CAA, but it is also against the NPR and the NRC, whose chronology Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly explained. It is this chronology that has alarmed India.

People don’t see the CAA in isolation; they associate it with the NPR and the NRC. The law is very clear – the nationwide NRC will be based on the particulars collected during the NPR. The Citizenship Rules, 2003 gives arbitrary power to junior level executive officer to mark any person as a doubtful citizen; any person can file an objection against anyone’s citizenship. The CAA-NRC will make one community more vulnerable than others, but on one will be above harassment. The poor and underprivileged will be most affected. NPR and NRC are not in national interest.

This democratically elected government should acknowledge this peaceful and non-violent protest, withdraw CAA and NPR, and make a statement that nationwide NRC will never be implemented.


Amit Shah’s stand reflects his decisiveness. Most Indians support CAA lock, stock and barrel

Arun Anand
CEO, Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra and author of ‘Know About RSS’

Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement on CAA is not brinksmanship but reflects the decisiveness of this government.

Unfortunately, post-Independence, successive governments have paid only lip service to issues of national interest such as granting citizenship to religiously persecuted minorities from our three Islamic neighbours.

The Modi government has broken the status quo by bringing closure to long pending issues such as Article 370, triple talaq and CAA. Ironically, when a political party starts implementing promises made in its manifesto, it is seen with suspicion.

What Amit Shah has said reflects the commitment of his party. The BJP has been voted back to power in 2019 with a massive mandate. It is fulfilling its promises now, so there is no question of going back on any issue.

As far as ways and means to assuage the feelings of CAA protesters are concerned, the fact of the matter is that these protests are being organised by the ultra-Left, radicals, Islamic fundamentalists, and backed by the opposition, which wants to displace this government at any cost, even if that means creating chaos and anarchy.

So, whatever the government does, they won’t agree to stop the protests.

Also, these protests are happening in small pockets with the support of only a handful. Most Indians support CAA lock, stock and barrel.


Modi govt has no interest in assuaging protesters or finding a middle ground with them

Alok Prasanna Kumar
Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

Home Minister Amit Shah has fundamentally misunderstood why people are protesting against CAA. Nobody is protesting the idea of granting citizenship to persecuted minorities beyond India’s borders — they are protesting the discriminatory nature of the law. Protesters just want the law to be inclusive.

The Narendra Modi government’s misconceptions about the protests go hand-in-hand with the duplicity of its rhetoric. PM Modi often plays ‘good cop’ by saying all is well and that NPR-CAA won’t come into effect, while Amit Shah plays ‘bad cop’ in taking firm stances on the issue like he did in the rally in Lucknow. Then you have the likes of West Bengal BJP chief and MP Dilip Ghosh who make controversial remarks about CAA protests. This further complicates the rhetoric.

I believe the Modi government has no interest in assuaging protesters or finding a middle ground with them. As far as the Modi-Shah duo is concerned, they are the Prime Minister and Home Minister only for the people who voted for them. Anti-CAA protesters didn’t vote for them so why should the Modi government attempt to break this state of impasse?

From the perspective of protesters, this also means that they have no one to approach in the BJP. Unlike Manmohan Singh’s government during the Anna Hazare anti-corruption protests, there is no leader in the Modi government who has said that they will listen to the protesters.


BJP has calculated that CAA protests are exacerbating polarisation and deflecting attention from economy

Shivam Vij
Contributing editor, ThePrint

People can keep protesting, says Amit Shah, but the Narendra Modi government will not roll back the controversial CAA. This must be the first time when an elected, democratic government says it won’t talk to unhappy citizens, assuage their concerns and resolve issues. Usually, governments either ignore protests or seek to end them through force. The Modi-Shah government has used force in a way that has only increased protests and Home Minister Amit Shah has now bluntly said he does not want to even consider the thought of negotiation.

This is part of the BJP’s calculation that the anti-CAA protests are helping it by exacerbating Hindu-Muslim polarisation and deflecting people’s attention from economic issues.

In other words, it is clear that Amit Shah is putting the BJP’s electoral and political considerations above his duty as India’s Home Minister. The Modi government is acting in the BJP’s interest and not in the national interest.

The alienation, marginalisation and anxiety imposed upon Indian Muslims can be disastrous for India’s safety, security, unity, integrity, communal harmony, and global image.

The Uttar Pradesh police filed an FIR against people flying kites with anti-CAA slogan. Would it not be much easier, simpler, more democratic, humane and sensitive for the Home Minister to directly engage in talks with representatives of people protesting across India and assuage their concerns?


Also read: NRC, NPR, CAA: Is the Modi govt facing a serious trust deficit?


By Pia Krishnankutty, journalist with ThePrint

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

8 COMMENTS

  1. Most Indians support CAA lock, stock and barrel because majority know not what it is and frankly are unaware of its impact.

  2. Frankly speaking, when I see these two person(Modi & Shah) in my TV I switch over to another channel immediately.They are like demons and their appearance shows their intention!!Most anti-human appearance.Can’t digest their appearance, and dialogue also !!!

  3. Can baseless fears be assuaged by anyone? The fact of the matter is, the unfounded fears have been stoked by out of power corrupt politicians, leftist/maoist media which is denied free travel & gifts, liberal parasites who have lived on public money for decades by peddling imaginary “atrocities on SC/ST” theories and by people who are revelling in their self-proclaimed backwardness.

    Two weeks ago, the media-created hero “Ravan” falsely wrote in this mag that “SC/ST/Tribals/OBCs” will be adversely affected by the NPR/NRC. One does not know how people who are availing reservation & other privileges on the basis of caste certificates dating back several decades would be unable to prove their identity, defies logic. Now the media is presenting him as upholder of constitution, but his gang is holding rallies carrying huge cloth banners which proclaim that “Brahmins are Foreigners and must be expelled”!!! So much for upholding the constitution!!! Owaisi says that his forefathers built the Red Fort. If all this is known, one fails to see how they cannot prove their identity.

  4. This was the perfect moment for the apex court to use its moral authority as a calming presence. The legal force of the petitions justified grant of a stay, at initio. All the more on the date of the second hearing, when the Respondents had been given a few weeks to submit their reply. In the normal course, the judiciary is not expected to take note of inflamed passions on the street, else it could not do its job with objectivity / impartiality. Consider something as emotive as sharing of river waters between states. However, the CAA protests stand on a different footing, as Shri Yogendra Yadav explains in his thoughtful column. State governments have opposed this law, and not simply as an act of partisanship. This was an occasion for the apex court to have observed how a new law was stirring up ordinary Indians like almost nothing else in living memory. Shri Chetan Bhagat has used the frightening phrase “ civil war “ in a recent column.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular