India / ‘Dear opponents of CAA’: Karnataka BJP throws a challenge

The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attacked those who are protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, asking them to specify how Indian citizens will be affected by it.

“Dear Opponents of the #CAA, please furnish the list of those Indian Citizens who will be affected by this Humanitarian Act. Also, please specify how they will be affected. We challenge that you will not be able to provide even a SINGLE NAME ! ! !” the Karnataka BJP said in a tweet on Wednesday. 

The BJP-led government passed the amendments to the citizenship law which fast-tracks granting citizenship to persecuted minorities from India’s three neighbouring countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Dear Opponents of the #CAA,

Please furnish the list of those Indian Citizens who will be affected by this Humanitarian Act.

Also, please specify how they will be affected.

We challenge that you will not be able to provide even a SINGLE NAME ! ! !#IndiaSupportsCAA

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) February 19, 2020

Since its passage in Parliament in December last year, the CAA has led to protests across the country. Many political parties, student bodies and other outfits have come out on streets against the new law and have been asking the government to repeal it. They accuse the government of dividing the country on religious lines by not including Muslims in the list of persecuted minorities.

Among the most vehement of protests is the one going on in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, where protesters are on a continued sit-in for more than two months. The Northeast, West Bengal and southern states too saw violent protests against the CAA.

The government has, meanwhile, said that it will not take the law back. Many Union ministers and BJP leaders have launched counter campaigns to educate people about the CAA. They say that Opposition parties are spreading lies about the law, and that reality needs to be told to the people of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah (who piloted the bill in Parliament) and others have said that the act will not affect any Indian citizen, and that it is the duty of the government to help members of the minority community who are facing harassment in the countries.

The government has also said that all the fears being propagated about the Muslim community in Indian being troubled by the CAA are unfounded.