‘Those in Opposition who were silent are now violent’: Modi takes a dig at rivals over CAA protests

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Opposition of conducting a “campaign” to misinform people about the Citizenship Amendment Act, and asked them why they were not concerned for the religious minorities in India’s neighbourhoods who would benefit from the citizenship law.

“Is it okay to misguide and misinform the nation?” the prime minister asked in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the president’s address. “Can anybody be a part of a campaign that does the same? The path being taken on CAA by many Opposition parties is unfortunate. Many Opposition members are very enthused these days, those who were silent have become violent.”

Modi pointed out that the Citizenship Amendment Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2003. The parliamentary Standing Committee that discussed it at the time and took forward the process had a number of Congress leaders.

The prime minister said the National Population Register and the Census were normal government procedures that had been carried out before. “But since vote-bank politics is a necessity, those who carried out NPR earlier are spreading misinformation about it now,” Hindustan Times quoted Modi as saying. “Small changes are topics of governance and people should not be spreading lies about it.”

As reported by Scroll.in, the population register is the first step to the National Register of Citizens, which the government wants to conduct across India to identify undocumented immigrants. The government’s critics fear that the government might misuse the NRC and the new citizenship law to harass Muslims and disenfranchise them since the Citizenship Amendment Act now has religion as a criterion. The Citizenship Amendment Act provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. It excludes Muslims.

Earlier in the day, the prime minister had defended the citizenship law in his address to the Lok Sabha. Targetting the Congress, Modi asked if India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was communal for wanting to protect religious minorities from Pakistan. The prime minister claimed that in 1963, Nehru had scolded his own minister of state for external affairs in Parliament, telling him that the government in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was mistreating Hindus.

Modi said Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and all other leaders of that generation wanted a law such as the Citizenship Amendment Act. Taking another dig at the Congress, the prime minister said “it was essential for the Congress to keep repeating that the Constitution must be saved from the BJP”. “This practice will make them realise their deeds,” he added. “Did the Congress try to save the Constitution during the Emergency?”

In the Upper House, Modi started his speech expressing his disappointment with some of the remarks made by Opposition members. “Some members have made stagnation a virtue,” he added. “They are still stuck in the same old ways, talking about the same things of the past.”

The prime minister criticised Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for saying the decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status was taken without discussion. “This is incorrect,” Modi added. “The country saw a comprehensive discussion on their TVs that continued for long. MPs voted in favour of the decisions.”

Modi defended his government’s Jammu and Kashmir, and North East policies, and took digs at Opposition parties for failing to develop these regions when they were in power.

He listed the achievements of Jammu and Kashmir since its special constitutional status was revoked. “The people in the Union Territory were receiving the benefits of reservation for the first time. There were Blocked Development Council polls, Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act came into being there,” he told the Upper House. “An anti-corruption bureau was set up there.”

The prime minister claimed there was unprecedented peace in the North East unlike what Congress leaders had claimed in their speeches. “North East is full of peace and is a prime member of India’s road to development,” Modi added. “For 40-50 years, violent protests and blockades were going on in the region. Today, these protests have stopped and we’re moving ahead together.”

The prime minister said the government had taken decisive action to help the Bru people of Mizoram, whereas state governments of the past had indulged in vote-bank politics. “Plight of the Bru refugees was pitiable,” Modi said. “It was our government that had the honour of solving this major problem.” A four-way agreement was signed on January 16 by representatives of the community, the Centre, Tripura and Mizoram to formalise an arrangement that would allow more than 30,000 displaced members of the community to be permanently settled in Tripura, where they have resided as refugees since 1997 after a bout of ethnic violence forced them to flee Mizoram. The refugees will be allotted land and cash assistance to build homes and start over.

The prime minister said he wanted to remind Azad that when Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated, “doors were closed and live telecast was prohibited” in the Upper House. The Congress was in power at the Centre at the time.

In the Rajya Sabha, Modi also claimed that the fundamentals of the Indian economy were strong. “There is no question of thinking small,” he added. “Pessimism and gloom do not help us. We talk about a five trillion dollar economy. Yes, the aim is ambitious but we have to think big and think ahead.”