With widespread protests being held all over the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the government is learnt to be supplementing its tough talk on the law with closed door discussions with representatives of the Muslim community to try and convince them that the CAA, as also the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens, will not affect their citizenship.
“We are reaching out to the community. We are having meetings with all those who matter. But we do not want any of this to be a public event,” said a senior Union minister. The outreach comes amid growing fear and anxiety among the members of the Muslim community about their citizenship status once the CAA and the NRC are rolled out.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed that it is the government's responsibility to ensure that the right message is conveyed and that the feeling of fear and anxiety among the Muslims with regard to the CAA and the NRC is dispelled.
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“There is a need to tell the people that they have no reason to fear. And the results of our discussions with the representatives of the minority community are already visible. Leaders from the community have issued public statements that work towards alleviating the concerns of the Muslims,” said the minister.
A major concern voiced by Muslim representatives is that if members of the community fail to produce the documents required to be included in the proposed NRC, they will lose their citizenship, but their counterparts from other religions can fall back on CAA.
The message being conveyed is that while the CAA has nothing to do with people who are Indian citizens, whichever might be their religion, the NRC for the whole country has still not been rolled out.
Also, it is being stressed in these meetings that as and when the NRC is implemented, members of the Muslim community need not fear being left out as there is a long list of documents from which they choose to prove their citizenship. “If nothing else, maximum members of the Muslim community have their voter ID, which is a valid proof of citizenship,” said the minister.
