Shah begins CAA outreach drive from Rajasthan today

New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah will address a rally in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur on Friday as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s fresh attempt to address concerns about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA that has triggered protests across the country, people familiar with the developments said.

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The rally will be the first in a series of 30 that the BJP leaders will hold across the country to address the concerns and to also underline that the CAA cannot be conflated with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

The CAA was passed in Parliament’s last month to fast-track citizenship for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, before 2015. Opponents of the CAA say the law is unconstitutional because it links faith to citizenship in a secular country and is discriminatory because it leaves out the Muslims. Several non-BJP-ruled states have opposed the legislation. The Kerala assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding the scrapping of the CAA.

Protests against the law first erupted in the Northeast, where people fear the law could result in a fresh influx of outsiders. The demonstrations later spread to several other parts of the country. At least 21 people died in Uttar Pradesh during protests against the controversial legislation on December 20 and 21.

A number of opposition parties, civil society groups, students, ordinary people, activists, and artists have staged protests against the CAA. Critics say the CAA, if combined with a pan-India NRC, could result in the expulsion or detention of Muslims unable to provide the documentation required for the exercise. An exercise held in Assam to identify undocumented immigrants in the state left out 1.9 million people from the NRC last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has insisted there have been no discussions on a nationwide NRC in Parliament or in the Union Cabinet, but the Opposition has pointed out that Shah has advocated it.

The BJP announced outreach campaigns to clear perceptions about the legislation In the wake of the protests.

BJP functionaries at the state level have been asked to carry out door-to-door campaigns to answer questions about the CAA and to emphasise how it would not impact any Indian citizen or community, according to the people cited above.

The BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, too, has begun a similar exercises to reach out to people, who have concerns about the CAA, the NRC, and the NPR.

“The party president [Shah] will speak about how the CAA is a law that provides citizenship and does not take away anyone’s rights. He will also be speaking about the differences between the CAA, the NRC, and the NPR and how none of these will cause inconvenience to any Indian citizen,” said a party functionary on condition of anonymity.

The functionary said that emphasis will be on de-linking the CAA from the NPR and the NRC.

Another functionary said Jodhpur has been picked as the venue for Shah’s rally since the city has a larger number of Hindus from Pakistan awaiting Indian citizenship. Jodhpur also has a significant number of those Pakistanis, who have been granted citizenship after crossing over to India from 1971 onwards.

Shah held a meeting at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday to review the outreach and to bolster the party’s efforts in trying to dispel concerns about the legislation.

As part of the campaign, BJP’s working president, J P Nadda, will be in Goa on Friday to address a rally on the issue. Shah will also launch a toll-free number for people to give missed calls to register their support for the CAA.

”Even as the party units at the state level are currently finalising the organisational elections, they have been instructed to undertake the outreach intensively,” the first functionary said.

Organisational elections that began last year will culminate with the election of the new party president later this month.

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