CAA rules in the making, Nadda says in North Bengal

We will be releasing the rules as and when the country is back on the Covid recovery path.

BJP party brass wants to pursue CAA in Bengal ahead of the 2021 assembly polls amid stiff opposition of political rivals who see CAA as a “discriminatory” Act

Roshan Gupta | TNN | Oct 20, 2020: BJP president J P Nadda revived the citizenship issue at the party’s Siliguri organizational meeting, 10 months after Citizenship (Amendment) Act — passed in Parliament in December 2019 — was put on the backburner following an intense debate in West Bengal social circles. 

“You will get CAA. Rules are in the making. The process got delayed due to the pandemic. We will be releasing the rules as and when the country is back on the Covid recovery path,” Nadda said on Monday, clearly indicating that BJP was committed to giving citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

The BJP president’s announcement, read with Union home minister Amit Shah’s comment on the possibility of President’s Rule in Bengal, makes it apparent the party brass wants to pursue CAA in Bengal ahead of the 2021 assembly polls amid stiff opposition of political rivals who see CAA as a “discriminatory” Act. 

BJP sources hinted the party couldn’t afford to go slow because it would create “misgivings” among refugees, particularly Matuas, a large section of which went with BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Matua leader and BJP’s Bongaon MP Shantanu Thakur has already expressed his “impatience” over CAA implementation in Bengal. 

Nadda addressed two crucial issues — CAA and tribal status for 11 Gorkha communities in the Hills — that can act either way if handled without care. BJP’s game plan for Bengal is to combine identity politics with that of empowerment in an attempt to consolidate the anti-incumbency, plus a bonus on the identity question when the ruling Trinamool has started addressing issues of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and general caste Hindus. “TMC was biased towards a community till the other day. The party is now desperate to build bridges with the Hindu community after it sensed the dissent,” Nadda said. 

At the same time, the BJP president pointed out in the Samajik Samuha meeting how the Bengal government was coming in the way of several welfare measures undertaken by the Modi government. “Prime Minister Modi arranged for an annual Rs 5 lakh medical support for a total 55 crore people in the country. A rickshaw-puller is also entitled to get this support under Ayushman Bharat. But it is not working in Bengal,” Nadda said. 

BJP seniors Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy received the party chief at Bagdogra airport, where he landed in a special aircraft from Delhi on Monday. Nadda paid tribute to the statue of Rajbanshi icon Panchanan Barma and offered prayers at a local Kali temple.