CAA Implementation: Furious Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti Accuse BJP of Using Religious Card to Win Elections

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah on Tuesday launched a bitter attack against the Modi government after it announced the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act rules four years after the bill was passed by both houses of the Parliament.

While Ms. Mufti termed it as an attempt to create another partition among the people of the country, Mr. Abdullah said that the BJP government has, on the eve of their fasting month Ramzan, given a gift to country’s Muslims by notifying CAA “which is against the very foundation of our constitution.”

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Ms. Mufti wrote on microblogging site ‘X’, “77 years after partition BJP is still wedded to the concept of two nation theory of Hindu Mahasabha. To further their agenda, they have thus implemented CAA to create another partition among our people”. She added, “This sudden urgency in its implementation despite the case being pending in honourable SC (Supreme Court), is a desperate attempt to divert attention from its all-round failures and engage people in hate politics. Appeal all communities especially Muslims not to walk into their trap”.

J&K National Conference vice president Mr. Abdullah told reporters here that notifying the CAA days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections shows the BJP is not confident about winning 400 seats in the ensuing polls. He said, “It is evident that the BJP wants to use religion in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. It (CAA bill) was passed in 2019 but notifying the rules just a few days before the bugle of elections is to be blown, perhaps makes it clear what their aim is”.

He added, “They were saying that after the construction of the Ram Temple, they cannot lose. But perhaps they feel that their position is weak and that is why they have to use these new weapons to sway gullible voters.”

The former chief minister alleged that the BJP wants to use religion card in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, but he added that the Muslims have always been a target of the BJP, which is not something new for the party. “Even in the CAA, Muslims have been made a specific target. This is not new for the BJP as this has been their approach before as well. It seems they want to use the politics of polarisation in the upcoming elections,” he asserted.