Nitish & Naveen Patnayak says no NRC rollout in Bihar Odisha
PATNA/BHUBANESHWAR: As thousands of people gathered at the August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray showed his leadership chops by not just allowing but facilitating the massive rally against the flawed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its bigoted twin, the National Citizens Register.
This contrasted dramatically with the crackdown on CAA protests in BJP-ruled states including Karnataka where intellectual Ramachandra Guha was detained by the police in Bengaluru (Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa later expressed his regret for the incident). Historian Ramachandra Guha was dragged by the police mid-interview as he was detained along with dozens in Bengaluru
The spectacle of Guha being manhandled by three policemen when he was speaking to a television channel and the shutting down of internet for the first time ever in Delhi was absorbed by an alarmed India.
As protests over CAA approach ten days, union Home Minister Amit Shah, the face of the controversial legislation, has doubled down, declaring that he is “rock like” in his determination to implement the changes that basically decide citizenship on religion and discriminate against Muslims.
Shah’s approach was echoed by Yogi Adityanath, UP Chief Minister, who warned “revenge” against “protestors destroying public property”. Debating the propriety of an elected representative talking of “revenge” is pointless – this is vintage Yogi.
But there is pushback now – not just from thousands of students and others but from state leaders; seven Chief Minister say they will not allow the NRC in their states. This lot includes BJP ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik, Odisha Chief Minister whose party voted for the CAA in parliament.
The NRC was designed by Shah to win the West Bengal election due in 2021. Shah has reportedly told senior BJP leaders and the RSS chief that this was his dream for the Sangh. West Bengal has a large Muslim population and Shah has portrayed Chief Mamata Banerjee as practising minority appeasement.
The BJP is seeking to encash on the large migrant Hindu population of West Bengal with the NRC rolling out just in time for the state’s election. Banerjee has been fierce in her resistance to Shah and after he triumphed by winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 election, she hired election strategist Prashant Kishor and has been on a campaign overdrive.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has refused to implement the Centre’s new citizenship law and the National Registry of Citizens Prashant Kishor, who is a vice-president of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United, has been instrumental in Kumar declaring, belatedly, that he will not allow the NRC in Bihar, the latest development in his highly elastic political conscience and in keeping with his finely-honed instincts to stay in power.
Yet this ramming through of a majoritarian agenda will now meet with resistance as regional parties are clear on opposing the BJP trampling on the federal structure of the polity. Perhaps NDTV put it best in its coverage yesterday, calling it “India versus Lockdown”.
The adversarial mood of the Modi government is on display as neither Modi nor Shah attempted even a token outreach to the protestors, students on 22 campuses and those whose family members died in the face-off. Lockdown and doubling down.
As thousands of people gathered at the August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai, CM Uddhav Thackeray showed his leadership chops by not just allowing but facilitating the massive rally against the flawed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its bigoted twin, the National Citizens Register.
But there is pushback now – not just from thousands of students and others but from state leaders; seven Chief Minister say they will not allow the NRC in their states. This lot includes BJP ally and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik, Odisha Chief Minister whose party voted for the CAA in parliament.
(Bureau Report With Agency Inputs )
