CAA - Has The Ruling BJP Lost Control Of The Script?

Protests erupt countrywide as the implications of the Citizenship Amendment Act sink in. Has the ruling BJP lost control of the script?

- Kaushik Deka

On a bone-chillingly cold Monday morning in Delhi, a group of students from Jamia Millia Islamia University were sitting shirtless at the university gates. The unusual protest was to highlight the Delhi police’s high-handedness the day before (December 15), entering the campus forcibly and roughing up students after a march against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, 2019, turned violent.

Soon, students of over 30 premier educational institutions across India were on the streets in solidarity with their Jamia compatriots and in protest against the controversial act. The main bone of contention here is that the act excludes the Muslim community while making illegal Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Parsi immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh eligible for citizenship, provided they entered India on or before December 31, 2014, and have stayed here for six years. The protesters, whose ranks include people from all walks of life, believe this violates the spirit of the Constitution and India’s secular ethos.