Opposition to Citizen Amendment Bill

India's recently passed Citizen Amendment Bill (CAB) is being opposed on three grounds and the most serious violence is happening over the least reported one. The liberals and the political parties on the left and the centre are opposing it for its religious discrimination which attacks the basic foundation of Indian constitution. This is because this legislation would bar only Muslims from seeking refuge in India. Many Muslims are protesting because they fear that a large number of them could lose their citizenship. During the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in the small state of Assam, 1.9 million people could not present documents proving that they belong to India. A vast majority of them must be Muslims. Under CAB everyone except Muslims can get away by claiming that they have been persecuted in Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan. The third group, original residents of Assam and Tripura are protesting because the bill guarantees citizenship to all Hindus migrants. There have been a long history of violent attacks by Assamese against migrant Bengalis, irrespective of they being Hindus or Muslims. As in any other ethnic conflict, locals here feel that Bengalis are taking away their jobs and benefits meant for the original inhabitants of the state. Once the new law is implemented these Bengali Hindus would officially be considered as citizens of these states with equal rights and the locals are loathing that scenario. The NRC exercise was launched after strong demand from the Assamese people to identify all the migrant from Bangladesh. The locals were hoping that one day all of these 'outsiders' would either be deported or be barred from claiming any right in the state. Now there is a new religious twist though CAB that no one had anticipated. The situation in Tripura is almost the same. BJP does not know how to respond to this violent fallout. The party probably never though about this aspect or considered it to be a trivial one. There are no doubts that NRC and CAB are being used to further the Hindu nationalist agenda where Muslims are to be disenfranchised. The share of Muslims in Indian population has constantly been rising - from 9.8% in 1951 to 14.2% in 2011. This is a very potent piece of statistic for BJP to create a fear among its hardline Hindu supporters, propagating that in the future Muslims could force another partition of India or become the rulers of the whole country. NRC and CAB seems to be the least controversial way for the BJP to achieve its goal of an Hindu nation and to keep winning elections. NRC was already going on before BJP came into power in 2014 and now CAB has been created. It could be used as a tool to take away the voting rights from the Muslims who not only vote against BJP but also vote strategically and as one block for a candidate most likely to defeat BJP. When NRC will be implemented all over India there would certainly be tens of millions of people who would not be able to prove their citizenship because possessing proper documentation is always a problem in India. Under CAB, those belonging to Hinduism, Sikh, Christianity and other religions could get away by saying that they have escaped religious persecution from other countries and only  the Muslims would be targeted and lose their citizenship rights and have no say in future government.