CAA: Muslim Bodies Convinced, Threats Balanced; Why the Modi Govt Took 4 Years to Implement the Law

Some of the measures that the Narendra Modi-led government and the RSS-BJP combined worked on to get the timing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, right include banning the Popular Front of India in 2022, identifying “fundamentalist” Muslim groups and locating “trouble zones,” and conducting a covert outreach to some sects and community leaders to persuade them that there is no threat to their religious identity or existence. Several BJP and RSS groups, as well as central security agencies, worked to reduce the likelihood of Muslim protests and outcry in Delhi, Assam, and West Bengal. Bengal was referred to as a “frontal state” at multiple RSS meetings since the organization believes that Hindu unification in the state is necessary for the good of the nation.

Following the repeal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, volunteers and functionaries of the Rashtriya Sangh Paribaha (RSS) and its affiliated and motivated organizations were assigned the responsibility of doing substantial work among Dalit Hindu communities while concurrently reaching out to Muslims. Assuring them that their identification or citizenship won’t be in jeopardy following the CAA’s implementation was the goal of this approach. Bengali-speaking Muslims were more nervous than Urdu- and Hindi-speaking Muslims, according to an area study report from a central organization. They were afraid that because Bangla was their mother tongue, they would come under harsher scrutiny and end up “stateless.” The report also stated that Muslims in Bengal and Assam who spoke Bengali were afraid of being ostracized as Rohingyas and losing their Indian citizenship rights. To gauge the sentiment among Muslims, agencies and political organizations conducted several quick surveys in seven districts, three of which had a mainly Muslim population and were situated close to the India-Bangladesh border.

IDENTIFYING ‘TROUBLEMAKERS AND TROUBLE SPOTS’

According to a senior official, several Muslim organizations mobilized cadres and coordinated protests, including Ahle-Sunnatul-Jamaat (Furfura Sharif in Hooghly), Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH), All Bengal Minority Youth Federation (ABMYF), All India Minority Association (AIMA), and Popular Front of India (PFI). The PFI was crucial because it organized the majority of the conflicts and violent incidents, but the JUH spearheaded the protests. We were aware that it would be difficult to mobilize cadres following the PFI’s ban. In this regard, West Bengal has been our main priority, as the officer stated.

The CAA has been purposefully linked to the NRC (National Register of Citizens), which is now nonexistent, by the PFI, JUH, and JEI-H (Jamaat-e-Islami Hind). This has been the central tenet of their disinformation effort, which has enabled them to organize susceptible Muslims by fanning their fear of soon losing their citizenship. Another senior officer stated, “The administration made attempts to dispel such notions. The officer continued, “Eight districts were identified as hotspots of such trouble or protests.”

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Role of RSS-BJP in Muslim Outreach

Senior RSS staff member: “Our volunteers put forth a lot of effort. For us, the CAA represents a further advancement in uniting Hindus, particularly those who have experienced religious persecution. Given that they were Bharatiyas before the two partitions we endured after gaining independence, we must bring them back and restore our national identity. Furthermore, our Hindu brothers and sisters, who are in Afghanistan, will also return. Thus, in an effort to convey to the mullahs (clerics), imams, ulemas, and other Muslim religious groups that they will not be impacted by the CAA, we conducted a number of sampark abhiyan (outreach programs).

The RSS official stated, “We learned through the outreach programs how other political parties, like the Trinamool Congress, were quietly propagating the message that the BJP government was purposefully interfering in Muslim personal laws to undermine Islam.” The official continued, stating that although the CAA has been informed for nearly twenty-four hours, there have been no reports of Muslims rioting or demonstrating because they have realized that the CAA will not revoke their citizenship.