On Monday, March 11, the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which will grant Indian nationality to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants, who had come to India before 2015 after facing persecution on the ground of religion in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
As soon as the Union Home Ministry officially notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), journalists, lawmakers, and Islamists who, in 2019, went into overdrive spreading false information that the Act discriminates against Muslims returned with a new toolkit, this time using the Muslim festival of Ramadan to promote their anti-Modi rhetorics and incite violence ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
TMC supremo, Mamata Banerjee started crying hoarse as soon as the announcement was made. She attempted to provoke the Muslims by implying that the BJP administration chose March 11 to notify the CAA because it wanted to deliberately mock the nation’s Muslim population, given that Ramadan begins tomorrow.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee says "You should have notified rules six months ago. If there are any good things, we always support and appreciate but if anything is done that is not good for the country, TMC will always raise its voice and oppose it. I know why today's date was… pic.twitter.com/KttcrdkT3U
— ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2024
Mamata Banerjee said she would see the rules first and would fight against them if they have anything that deprives people of their rights.
In her sinister attempt to defame the Modi government and provoke her brethren against the BJP govt just ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Muslim journalist Rana Ayyub took to X to connect the announcement of CAA with the Muslim festival of Ramzan. She wrote, “To do it on the eve of Ramzan in India. Was there ever any pretence.”
Likewise, several Islamists also tried to fearmonger that the ‘pro-Hindu’ BJP government has purposely chosen the eve of Ramzan to notify the Citizenship Amendment Act, which they, for some odd reason, believe is against Muslims.
An Islamist user on X wrote, “At a moment when Indian Muslims welcome the holiest month of Ramadan, Modi implements Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that is aimed at stripping Indian Muslims of their citizenship, reducing them to second class citizens and throwing them in concentration camps. Naked fascism.”
Several other Islamists and so-called liberals also attempted to rumour-monger by unnecessarily connecting the notification of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was in the pipeline, to the Muslim festival of Ramzan.
Anti-Modi toolkits activated by a vicious cabal of journalists, activists and politicians.
Opposition parties and their leftist-friendly media have time and again activated such anti-Modi toolkits, especially before the elections. Ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, a new Congress toolkit had circulated on social media that revealed the depths to which the party sank to mint their political fortunes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. While Congress claimed that it was fake, the content of the toolkit spoke a different story. We, at OpIndia, could not independently verify the authenticity of the toolkit.
One of the most significant revelations was that a deliberate attempt was made to paint the Kumbh Mela as a “super-spreader” while maintaining a carefully crafted silence over massive Eid gatherings.
But there was another major story in the toolkit. The toolkit demonstrates that the entire strategy of the Congress was based on a ‘friendly’ media. The toolkit revealed the great confidence they have in the media, especially international media.
The most damning indictment, however, was regarding using international media to dent Prime Minister Modi’s image. “International media coverage by foreign correspondents in India can be tailored to exclusively focus on Modi and his mismanagement. Liaise with foreign journalists and Indian Oped writers in foreign publications and brief them on talking points.”
The Congress party also implored the use of funeral pyre photographs to further dent India’s image.
Similarly, last year, the dubious organisation ‘Hindus for Human Rights’ had come up with a “special toolkit” to propagate against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then on a State Visit to the US. The toolkit released by the organisation was part of its anti-Modi campaign.
During the same time, ‘journalist’ Saba Naqvi also courted controversy after she inadvertently posted the screenshot of a ‘Congress toolkit’ targeting the ruling BJP government.
As part of the propaganda, Naqvi was supposed to post only the graphics and links shared with her by the Congress IT Cell. Instead, she included the entire email transcript (archive), containing the propaganda material.
Saba Naqvi, who poses as a ‘neutral journalist’, inadvertently exposed how she shares tweets at the behest of the Congress party. This had left netizens wondering whether her criticism of the government was at all organic or sponsored by rival Opposition parties.
The toolkit controversy and its origins
The monicker ‘toolkit’ has become a shorthand for the systemic targeting of India and its institutions by a vicious cabal of journalists, activists and politicians.
It was first popularised by infamous climate activist Greta Thunberg, who inadvertently revealed the sinister global campaign in a tweet during the anti-farm law protests in India in February 2021.
The document shared by Greta Thunberg listed a series of actions that people across the world could take to pressurise the Indian Government over the cause of agitating farmers.
As part of the plan, celebrities including Rihanna, Mia Khalifa and Canadian MP Jagmeet and others came forward in support of the anti-farm law protests. The ‘toolkit’ shared by Greta Thunberg has made it clear that it was part of a larger conspiracy to cause unrest in India.
Government of India notifies implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules
Meanwhile, on Monday (March 11), the Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). This Act was crucial to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The issuance of these rules is expected to create a pathway for migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, specifically those belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian communities, to obtain citizenship in India.
Today, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will be announcing the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019). These rules will empower those eligible under CAA-2019 to seek Indian citizenship through the application process.
The applications will be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided.
The Lok Sabha on 9th December 2019 passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 while the Rajya Sabha passed it on 11th December 2019.
Addressing the Parliament at the time, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated that the Bill is not against any Minority in India and the rights of each Indian Citizen will be equally protected.
Even as the Bill itself was passed, the rules required for its implementation were not notified, yet anti-CAA protests rocked the country immediately after the passage of the Bill with several Muslims holding the state to ransom.
Violence was reported across cities, including in the national capital. At least 53 people died in the subsequent riots that followed and 200 people were left injured.
OpIndia had extensively covered the anti-Hindu riots, which were falsely presented by the mainstream media as an anti-Muslim pogrom, and facts documenting tragic cries of Hindus that would otherwise have gone unheard.
