BJP’s Chandra Kumar Bose questions exclusion of Muslims from CAA, triggers row

In one of his tweets, Bose said only the party that believes in inclusive ideology would win the 2021 assembly elections in Bengal.

Chandra Kumar Bose, vice president of the West Bengal unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), kicked up a storm when he questioned the exclusion of Muslims from the amended Citizenship Act.

File phoro of Bengal BJP vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose.(ANI Photo)

“If #CAA2019 is not related to any religion why are we stating - Hindu,Sikh,Boudha, Christians, Parsis & Jains only! Why not include #Muslims as well? Let’s be transparent,” Bose, who is known for making controversial statements, tweeted after midnight.

“Don’t equate India or compare it with any other nation - as it’s a nation open to all religions and communities,” Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, said in the second tweet.

The Bengal BJP reacted sharply. “When the citizenship bill was placed in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah explained in detail why Muslims were not included in the law. It seems Bose did not listen to those speeches at all. Incidentally, he is asking the same question that Marxist and Trinamool Congress leaders are asking after listening to Shah’s speeches,” said Jay Prakash Majumdar, another vice president of the BJP Bengal unit.

“CAA offers protection and citizenship rights only to those who have been forced to leave three neighbouring countries because of religious persecution. All three countries are Islamic nations and hence, as denied by United Nations, Muslims cannot be victims of religious persecution in their own land. Bose is making these comments either intentionally or out of sheer ignorance,” said Majumdar.

In his third tweet, Bose said only the party that believes in inclusive ideology would win the 2021 assembly elections in Bengal. “A party which would follow the inclusive ideology of #NetajiSubhasChandraBose representing all communities & work for the upliftment of all stratas of society would win Bengal in 2021 Assembly elections. The rest would be irrelevant,” he said, attaching a photograph of Netaji.

On Tuesday morning, Bose replied to his first tweet and tweeted, “If Muslims are not being persecuted in their home country they would not come, so there’s no harm in including them. However, this is not entirely true - what about Baluch who live in Pakistan & Afghanistan? What about Ahwadiyya in Pakistan?”

A few days, Bose ran into a controversy when he said that some vice presidents of the Bengal BJP are not given any responsibility by the party. Reacting to this, president of the state unit of BJP Dilip Ghosh had said, “People holding positions in our party find out their own tasks and responsibilities.”