New Delhi: Amidst murmurs within party corridors that the grand inauguration of the Ram Mandir was not generating the “expected traction”, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of India, the BJP is weighing the option of bringing in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) before the model code of conduct kicks in. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has already sounded the alarm on the imminent implementation of the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) preceding the Lok Sabha elections. As political tensions escalate, all eyes are on the BJP’s next strategic move and its potential ramifications on the electoral landscape.
It may be recalled that Union home minister Amit Shah had on February 10 gone on record saying the CAA “will be notified and implemented before the Lok Sabha polls”. He had said: The CAA is an act of the country. It will be notified before the polls. There should be no confusion about it.”
Last week Ms Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal CM and Trinamul Congress supremo, had claimed the Aadhaar cards of residents of the state were being “deactivated” as a precursor to enforcing the CAA and the National Register of Citizens.
The CAA, which became law in December 2019, aims to give citizenship to persecuted refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant eligibility for Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian illegal migrants from these countries. It was pointed out that for the first time religion was being made a criterion for citizenship. Home ministry officials clarified that “the government will not face any hurdle if the CAA was announced before the Lok Sabha polls”. The CAA was passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 11, 2019 with 125 votes in favour and 105 votes against it. The parties that voted in favour in spite of not being in the ruling coalition included JD(U), AIADMK, BJD, TDP and YSRCP.
After the inauguration of the Ram Mandir, BJP spin doctors felt that the CAA could be implemented once the NDA returned to power after the Lok Sabha polls. However, reports emanating from southern and eastern states indicated the Ayodhya event was “not getting the kind of response the party expected”. It was then "we started to look hard at the CAA option”, a BJP leader said. He said while the Ram Mandir could spell massive electoral benefit in the Hindi heartland, reports from Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and the southern states were “not encouraging”. The functionary claimed that the Ram Mandir “might not be enough” to accomplish the target of 370 of 543 Lok Sabha seats.
The other factor worrying the BJP was of simmering discontent over “unemployment” across the country. There are reports stating that despite giving adequate subsidies to boost manufacturing, the “unemployment rose to 5.4 per cent in 2022-23, up from 4.9 per cent in 2013-14”. A Lokniti-CSDS survey indicated that while 42 per cent of Indians felt that economically “nothing has changed”, 22 per cent believed that conditions have “worsened”. The biggest concern among people last year remained “unemployment”, as compared to corruption and price rise. The survey further indicated that last year 60 per cent of Indians claimed that their total household income was “not enough” to fulfil their needs and that they were finding it difficult, as compared to 50 per cent in 2019.
A debate has been raging over the unemployment figures in the country. While the government has been claiming that the unemployment rate has declined, the Opposition has been accusing the Centre of “fudging the figures”. The chairman of the All India Professionals’ Congress, Praveen Chakravarty, recently went on record saying that the figures were “misleading” as it “hid the fact that hundreds of millions of Indians are dependent on NREGA as the unemployment rate hovered around eight per cent”.
