Despite protests by Congress-led opposition parties and agitation by people of northeastern states of India, like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian Parliament passed its Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) on the night of December 11. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will grant citizenship to the non-Muslims – Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis – from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh on the plea that they fled their parent countries due to religious persecution and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

Before the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), these immigrants were labeled as illegal migrants. The CAB paves the way for Indian citizenship to lakhs of immigrants, and people who do not belong to the said communities would not be eligible for Indian citizenship. Earlier, the duration of the immigrants’ residency was 11 years; CAB had reduced it to five years. Opponents of the bill say faith cannot be made a condition of citizenship as it violates the secular principles enshrined in the constitution. The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and guarantees all persons equality before the law.

The opposition parties termed it as anti-Muslim and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s Hindutava agenda to consolidate Hindu votes. They said the purpose of the bill is to tell the Muslims, ‘you are not equal human beings with equal rights’. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi termed December 11 as a “dark day” in the constitutional history of India and a “victory of narrow-minded and bigoted forces” over the country’s pluralism. But Home Minister of India, Amit Shah, denied the charges. He said the CAB is not meant to snatch anyone’s Indian citizenship; it will provide citizenship to religious minorities who are being persecuted in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Home Minister Amit Shah said existing rules are open for Muslims of other countries to apply for Indian citizenship. He added that 566 Muslims have been given citizenship. Shah also attacked the Congress for doublespeak on the issue, saying that during its rule, the Congress party had given Indian citizenship to 13,000 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan ignoring other communities.

According to political observers, people in Assam and the other North-Eastern states fear that the CAB will lead to lakhs of Hindus from Bangladesh flooding indigenous communities, threatening their language, culture, and tradition and aggravating employment situation in these states. People in Assam along with the other North-Eastern states have their sentiments linked to their culture, language, and heritage. Protestors are furious that Assam already bore the brunt of immigrants from 1951 to 1971; it is unfair to impose more immigrants on the state. The protestors lamented that CAB is an attempt to legalize the 17 lakh Hindus and indigenous tribes who were left out of the National Registry of Citizens prepared under the guidance of the Supreme Court of India. Protesters now believe that the CAB will make NRC redundant and bestow citizenship on illegal immigrants.

Why Are States Opposing CAB?

The northeastern will undoubtedly be the top electoral issue in the 2021 West Bengal and Assam assembly elections. The BJP is hoping for a second term in Assam and wrests power in West Bengal. Muslims constitute around 35 per cent of the population of Assam and about 27-30 per cent in Bengal. The Citizenship Amendment Bill puzzle makes it a Muslim versus non-Muslim debate. It will make the Bengal and Assam elections a polarized political affair. The BJP, which is unpopular among Muslims, hopes to gain from the counter-consolidation of Hindu votes as a result of the consolidation of Muslim votes. The CAB will put BJP at an advantageous position vis-à-vis other parties as, except Muslim, Hindu and other minorities will vote for BJP.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party accused Congress, and opposition parties of spreading rumours and inciting people of Assam and northeastern states, as the Citizenship Amendment Bill would not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Tripura, as included in Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and the area covered under the Inner Limit, notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. This means that Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram, the whole of Meghalaya and parts of Assam and Tripura would stay out of the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

Defending the Bill, R Jagannathan, editorial director of Swarajya magazine, wrote that “the exclusion of Muslims is due to the obvious reality that the three countries Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh are Islamists, either as stated in their constitutions or because of the actions of militant Islamists, who target the minorities for conversion or harassment.”

As the entire North East continues to burn and opposition parties challenging the CAB in the Supreme Court of India, it remains to be seen how long it will take for things to settle down.

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With the Supreme Court of India dismissing a review petition seeking court-monitored criminal probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal between the Indian Government and France’s Dassault, aviation decks are now clear for induction of Rafale fighter jets in the Indian Air Force. In a decision with far-reaching consequences, the court has laid to rest the ongoing political smear campaign launched by the former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his proxies on the theme “Chowkidar Chor Hai” meaning “Security Guard is Thief” against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The court decision has not only lent a severe blow to the Congress party of India but has also eroded the credibility of the party among the masses.

It may be recalled that the Dassault’s modern jet fighter, Rafale, known for its agility, speed, attack, and weapon holding capacity was selected in the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender in 2012 by the Congress-led UPA Govt. Dassault Rafale was preferred over Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin’s F-16 used by Pakistan Air Force, Sweden’s Saab Gripen, Boeing’s F/A-18, and Russia’s MiG-35.

Military and Political Significance of Rafale

Currently, IAF is handicapped on long-range weapons and sensors vis-a-vis Pakistan Air Force. Rafale will give the Indian Air Force a decisive edge with better sensors and weapons. Each Rafale in the air would require at least two F16s for a counter-challenge. Combined with the S400 air defense system next year, it will significantly enhance the Indian Air Force’s superiority in the region.

The preliminary deal of $12 billion consisted of buying 18 Rafale off the shelf and assembling another 108 Rafale by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Dassault agreed to the deal on the condition of two separate contracts, one for 18 Rafale brought directly from France, while the other for 108 Rafale assembled at HAL. The Indian Government was not ready for two separate contracts; also, the Government wanted a guarantee on the quality of the Rafale fighters assembled at HAL, while Dassault was not prepared for it. The deal was stuck as neither Dassault nor the Indian Government was ready to accept terms.

In the 2014 Indian Parliamentary Elections, the UPA coalition lost to the NDA coalition led by Narendra Modi. On assuming the power to break the standoff, Prime Minister Modi intervened and bought 36 Rafale of worth $7.87 billion in fly-away condition, whose guarantee was wholly accepted by Dassault. The deal was signed in 2016. 

Rahul Gandhi alleged “irregularities” in the Rafale deal in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and launched a vociferous campaign alluding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the corrupt guard (“chowkidar chor hai”). Congress alleged that the Modi government signed the contract with France at a much higher price than negotiated during the UPA rule. Congress and its proxies filed four petitions before the Supreme Court raising questions about the process followed in finalization of the Rafale deal, pricing, as well as the choice of Reliance Defence as the offset partner. In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the allegation of corruption in Rafale deal as an attempt to tarnish the clean and honest reputation of PM Modi and his government.

The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices KM Joseph, and SK Kaul dismissed the review pleas in a unanimous judgment. The bench observed that the necessity for aircraft has never been in dispute, and they cannot overlook the fact that the contract for aircraft was pending before different governments for quite some time.

Whereas the ruling BJP demanded an apology from the Congress, analysts are of the view that malicious campaigns to derive political mileage vitiate the social and political atmosphere of the nation and ultimately harm the interests of the country. The verdict should be an eye-opener for Rahul Gandhi to ponder over whether he made a mistake by coining the slogan “chowkidar chor hai.”

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India is a ‘Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic’, yet the question arises- is India a truly secular democratic republic? As projected by the Independence movement and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty – a secular nation is one where many religious, linguistic, and ethnic identities could co-exist peacefully, and this is the essence of the Indian constitution. India has a population of about 1.32 billion consisting of 80% Hindus, 15% Muslims, 2.3% Christian, and 1.9% Sikh. But over the times with changing political equations and voting trends of the 18 crore Muslims, minority voters have emerged as the key to the throne of the nation.

Secularism has made way for minority appeasement; as a result, minority appeasement politics has taken center stage with all the front-ranking political parties relying on the vote bank of more than 18 crore Muslims to rule the nation. With Muslims comprising more than 15% of the Indian population and holding the key to more than two hundred seats,  Muslim votes are not just the deciding factor in many seats, but they are the kingmakers or rather the kings in the Indian political scenario.

The Indian National Congress which ruled over the nation for the majority of the period since India independence in 1947 has been framing policies for the appeasement of the Muslim community and has used Muslims against Hindus to serve its political purpose. The Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) turned a blind eye to the massive influx of illegal Muslim migrants from Bangladesh in Assam and West Bengal. It caused numerous instances of violence and mass carnage, ultimately forcing the government to go for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

The late Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi’s knee-jerk reaction in the shape of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill on the Supreme Court of India judgment in Shah Bano brought to the fore the Muslim appeasement politics of the Congress. Shah Bano, a Muslim mother of five children, who was divorced by her husband in 1978, won the right to alimony from her husband in a criminal suit in the Supreme Court of India. The then Congress government led by the late Rajiv Gandhi first welcome the judgment and fielded Muslim Minister Arif Mohammad Khan to laud the SC judgment, and thereafter buckled under the pressure of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.

The Act contained a controversial provision which gave the right to maintenance just for the period of iddat (about three months) after the divorce and shifted the onus of maintaining her to her relatives or the Wakf Board. The Act was discriminatory, as it denied the right to essential maintenance to divorced Muslim women which women of other faiths had under the secular law of India.

The main Opposition Party, Bharatiya Janta Party led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been banking on Hindu vote bank to rule the nation. The BJP, with the help of the RSS and the VHP, created massive Hindu vote-bank in the North Indian states using the contentious issue of the Ram Temple/Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. The BJP’s ideology and mobilization strategies created divisions in the Hindu society and alienated the Muslims. By this strategy, the BJP successfully moved from a mere 2 seats in 1984 to 86 seats in 1989 and 120 in 1991. By mid-1990s, particularly after the destruction of the Babri Mosque on 6th December 1992, the BJP leadership began to realize the limitations of its communal strategy. The Bharatiya Janta Party, having politically “exhausted” the Hindutva issue, was desperate to lure the Muslim vote bank.

The Supreme Court verdict on triple talaq, Instant Divorce declaring it unconstitutional in its judgment dated 17 August 2017 came as a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. The Supreme Court judgment created a rift in the Muslim community with males opposing it and women supporting the decision. In spite of the opposition of the Muslim Community and political parties of India, the BJP government moved in swiftly and framed a law to ban triple talaq with an eye on the Muslim women vote bank. The division of Muslim votes has directly helped the BJP even in seats where Muslims make more than 50% of the population. The BJP which is held as the Hindu communal party also trod on the path of Muslim appeasement politics like other political parties of India.

The trend of minority appeasement indicates that Muslims will continue to take advantage of their position in Indian politics. Elections are won and lost in the Lok Sabha with the difference of merely a couple of thousand votes of Muslims in almost every other constituencies in Assam, UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and elsewhere. This indicates that the Muslims can not only just swing the mood in favor of one party or candidate, but they are also the deciding factor in more than two hundred seats across the country.

Muslims were and will remain relevant for political parties to rule over the nation. With all the national and regional political parties, such as the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United), and others, competing with one another to lure the Muslim vote bank, Muslim appeasement politics is here to stay in one form or the other.

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