In a widely shared India-TV program, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad assured an apparently hostile group of Muslim opponents that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had nothing to do with them (Muslims) or any other current citizen of India. The program garnered support of CAA from Indian masses. But did we see an honest debate, or was the program scripted? For one, the bunch of people sitting across from the Law Minister were all Muslims--some were against the CAA and some favored the amendment. The ones opposing the bill were caricature images of Muslim men: dressed in sherwani, sporting a dyed beard, a karakul on head, and stubborn in their views without much thought about the logic behind them. By showcasing these opponents, the TV show cemented the general perception that only Muslims are opposed to the new legislation. And the only time the actual argument why the CAA must be challenged was brought up, the Law Minister laughed it out. Why did he deride the argument? Because that was the crux of the matter.
The amendment instead of showing India’s benevolent support to any person persecuted on the basis of their beliefs, goes on in naming the religious groups India will be welcoming--and Muslims are not in that list. The insidious message is not lost on anyone what such a law enacted by a government supported by Hindu nationalists really means. The message is loud and clear: the BJP’s India does not like the Muslims.
But the CAA has achieved what it was meant to achieve: it further divided India on communal basis. And through orchestrated TV debates, the general perception about the bill has deepened: to oppose the CAA is Muslim, communist, unpatriotic; to support the amendment is Hindu, nationalistic, patriotic. The bill has solidified Modi’s support among the Hindus who are now seen as the true guardians of the new India--one big step in a further transformation of a secular democracy into a majoritarian rule.
[Photo: courtesy of India-TV]
