The Citizenship Amendment Bill was tabled by Home Minister Amit Shah in the Parliament today. As expected, the Opposition came up with a series of bizarre arguments against the Bill. The journalists weren’t too far behind. On social media, it was an all-around meltdown in the ‘secular’ camp.
Shama Mohamed, a national media panellist for the Congress party, claimed that the Bill is an insult to Indian Muslims despite the fact that it has nothing to do with them at all. It appears a deliberate attempt to fuel divisions within the country.
#CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 is an insult to Muslims & against our constitution. This bill is tabled in Parliament by the government only to treat Muslims as second class citizens & to polarize the environment. Each & every Indian should oppose this bill!
— Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) December 9, 2019
Compulsive hatemonger Arfa Khanum Sherwani wasn’t too far behind either. She claims that the Bill changes the basic structure of the Constitution. She went ahead to claim that onus to ‘Save India’ was now on Hindus.
#CitizenshipAmendmentBill is set to change the basic character of India. Muslims can do nothing but helplessly see themselves getting reduced to an inferior and compromised citizenry.
All this is happening in the name of you-the Hindus of India.
The onus to save India is on you!— Arfa Khanum Sherwani (@khanumarfa) December 9, 2019
According to Suhasini Haidar, an editor at the newspaper ironically named The Hindu, India is debasing itself by providing citizenship rights to religious minorities in Islamic States where non-Muslims suffer rampant persecution due to their religion.
Just as our nation was uplifted by our struggle for independence, and ennobled by our Constitution that allowed us to chart a path admired by the world, it has been debased and diminished today, by the government’s #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019. #Rethink
— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) December 5, 2019
Rajdeep Sardesai, agenda-peddler in chief, claimed that ‘wounds that were healing’ were being opened up because Amit Shah mentioned the religious persecution faced by Hindus in Bangladesh. It appears, according to him, India should abandon the Hindus of the subcontinent to their fate because it might hurt the feelings of India’s ally.
During introduction of Citizenship Bill in Lok Sabha, HM @AmitShah says ‘massacres’ against Hindus continue in Bangladesh.. and we thought that Dhaka was our friendliest South Asian neighbour. New wounds being opened up which we thought were healing..
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) December 9, 2019
The meltdown was much more obvious in certain other quarters. Vidya Krishna, who features in The Hindu and The Caravan, called people ‘a piece of sh*t’ for exercising their voting preferences in the elections.
And if you didn’t vote, you privileged piece of sh*t, you are just as complicit. I am heartbroken by what this govt has don’t to a secular country.
We can no longer say India is the world’s largest democracy.— Vidya (@VidyaKrishnan) December 9, 2019
Meanwhile, Barkha Dutt is looking for a ‘modern-day Gandhi’ who will fast unto death against the Bill. Social Media users are wondering why wasn’t she volunteering for the purpose.
Who is a modern day Gandhi who will fast unto death against this bill. Who. #CABBill https://t.co/s8cTydnKjf
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) December 9, 2019
Zafar Abbas, another ‘journalist’, expressed his bewilderment at the fact that Amit Shah is the Home Minister of the country for stating the obvious.
This man is India’s Home Minister ! https://t.co/pONjvamQoS
— Zafar Abbas (@zafarabbaszaidi) December 9, 2019
Rohini Singh, infamous for her biased reportage during the UP Assembly Elections, called the Bill which provides citizenship to persecuted religious minorities ‘one of the most evil exercises’.
Rarely in the history of a nation, does a time come when silence is no longer an option. The #CABBill isn’t against Hindus like me. But it is against my idea of India. To not speak out now will mean complicity in one of the most evil exercises undertaken by a government.
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) December 9, 2019
Then there were, of course, the likes of Sreenivasan Jain, who claimed that Muslims are minorities in the Islamic States of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. One would have hoped that the ‘secular’ camp would see the obvious necessity of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, however, it appears it’s too much decency to expect from them.
