Citizenship Amendment Act & Our Responsibility (Apr 2024)

– Alamgeer Hossain (M.A. B.Ed. Kalyani University)

The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA, which was already passed by the Lok Sabha in 2019, has been implemented recently in India. In anticipation for the 2024 elections, the BJP government officially announced the adoption of this law on the eve of Ramadan. The Act states that if a person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi or Christian community, who came to India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Bangladesh on or before December 31, 2014, and is now residing in India, they are no longer illegal. They will now be granted citizenship. That is, citizenship will be given to people of other religions except Muslims coming from the above mentioned three countries.

The exclusion of Muslims from the CAA and the designation of Muslims as intruders and refugees of other religions including Hindus are nothing more than manifestations of Muslim bigotry. Even then, some people may say hey no! The three countries from which citizenship is being given to non-Muslims are Muslim countries, and there is no need to give citizenship to Muslims from there, because Muslims can easily get citizenship in these countries, but non-Muslims cannot. So, there is an arrangement to grant them citizenship in this country.

The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act was implemented on 11th March 2024, the first day of Ramadan by the Govt. despite nationwide protests not too long ago

Let’s assume for a moment that the CAA has nothing to do with Islamophobia. But even then, from 2014 till now we see many incidents where the BJP government’s blatant Islamophobia and Muslim hatred has come to the fore. Beef ban and mob lynching in states ruled by extremist Hindutva BJP, Delhi riots, abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, bulldozing of Muslim houses, the prohibition of loudspeakers in mosques, the hijab ban in various schools and colleges, approval of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim films, ban on public prayers, free run of various extremist Hindutva groups have resulted in killing of Muslims, anti-Muslim riots, vandalism of mosques forcing Muslims to chant religious slogans and so on. These are not merely coincidental events but the manifestation of planned Muslim hatred.

In the run-up to the elections, the BJP government implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act mainly to achieve certain goals—such as garnering support from Hindutva groups, creating a vote bank by granting citizenship to Hindu refugees and immigrants, and covering up the BJP government’s failure to address the problems even after remaining ten years in power. In short, the BJP is desperate to win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and is leaving no stone unturned to do so.

Even in such a situation, if the action of Indian Muslims is the same as in the past days i.e. supporting a secular party or spending time and effort in forming a Muslim political party then the result will be the same as before. Because for the last 70 years, Muslims have voted some secular party to power, but in return they have been used as a vote bank. On the other hand, spending time, effort, and money on forming a Muslim political party in the Indian context is also not fruitful.

“They Plan, and Allah Plans. Indeed Allah is the best of Planners” (Qur’an)

The only option available to Muslims in such a circumstance is to turn back to Allah and His Deen and to hold fast to the Deen, call for the Deen and strive to establish the Deen. The things that are happening to the Muslims today and the situation that has arisen, the Muslims should not be disappointed by it but rather strengthen their faith.

Allah says:

” So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be superior if you are [true] believers.” (3:139)

Allah the almighty describes the benefit of doing righteous deeds with strong faith in the Qur’an  as follows – “Allah promises those among you who believe and do righteous deeds, that He will surely give them representation in the land, as He gave representation to those before them, and He will surely establish for them Make their religion that which He has chosen for them and grant them security after their fear. They shall worship Me, and associate nothing with Me.” (24:55)

At the same time, we must exercise patience and piety. It is among the most important means to seek Allah’s assistance in foiling the conspiracy of falsehood (ba’til) with these two attributes.

“If you are patient and mindful ˹of Allah˺, their schemes will not harm you in the least. Surely Allah is Fully Aware of what they do.” (3:120)

Above all, we should trust in Allah and do the work of religion, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala will surely help the believers.

“That is, it is my duty to help the believers.” (30:47)