As Dissent Spreads, About 80 BJP Minority Cell Leaders Resign over CAA and NRC in Indore

Bhopal: Dissent continued to brew in the minority cell of the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with about 80 Muslim leaders resigning from their posts in Indore district on Thursday.

Those who put in their papers on the contentious issues relating to the amended Citizenship Act were mostly from Indore, Mhow, Khargone and Dewas.

The CAA that was recently passed by Parliament seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from three neighbouring countries. The Act, combined with the proposed implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), is been criticised in several quarters as being discriminatory towards Muslims and may eventually lead to them being targeted over citizenship issues.

Last week, a number of officer-bearers of the BJP’s minority cell had resigned citing the same concerns.

Those who quit the saffron camp on Thursday said the Hindu-Muslim debate should come to an end and focus should be shifted to issues such as economy and unemployment.

“We can’t be going back to our community with contentious issues such as triple talaq, Ram temple-Babri Masjid, abrogation of Article 370 and so on,” Waseem Iqbal Khan, the BJP’s Indore unit’s minority cell general secretary, told News18 over the phone.

There seems to be no end to these issues and the list may soon include a common civil code, population control and other topics on which discussions have already started, he added.

“The CAA, NRC and other such legislations are an attempt to create hate in the minds of the 85% of the population against those who roughly make 15% of the same. We can’t expect 31% illiterate people of the country to furnish their citizenship documents with ease,” Khan added.

The district minority cell head, Manzoor Ahmed, told News18 that only a single office-bearer from Indore has resigned, while the remaining are from nearby places. Most of them who put in their papers used to hold insignificant positions in the morcha, he added.

Stating the minority cell office-bearers are trying to allay the fears of the Muslim community, Ahmed blamed Congress workers for spreading rumours on the CAA-NRC issue.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, while talking to reporters, said he had no idea of the resignations, adding that if someone was being misled, the party leadership would speak to the individuals.