PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and NC leader Omar Abdullah have criticised the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at this juncture. In a post on X, Mehbooba said: “77 years after partition, the 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.” Further, she added: “Appeal all communities especially Muslims not to walk into their trap.”
The statement evoked a sharp reaction from BJP spokesperson Brigadier Anil Gupta who said that the statement was “not only provocative but treacherous and divisive. She needs to be booked for that. He tagged LG Manoj Sinha in his response on X saying Mr Sinha should take a serious note. He asked Mehbooba to explain as to how CAA “will lead to another partition”. He pointed out that CAA was not applicable to Bharatiyas (Indians) at all. Brig Gupta also requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take note of her utterances.
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said: “They (BJP) have given a Ramadan gift to the Muslims of the country by notifying the CAA. We regret it. They (BJP) were saying that after the (construction of) 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.”
Omar, however, did not explain how the CAA was going to impact Indian Muslims since it did not apply to them at all. It was an enabling provision to confer Indian citizenship on Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Jains who came to India before December 31, 2014, because of persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Here, it is pertinent to point out that three generations of Abdullahs did not provide domicile of J&K to persecuted Hindus and Sikhs from neighbouring Pakistan. The West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs) had flocked to Jammu and nearby areas to escape certain death at the hands of Muslim marauders in Sialkot, Narowal, Lahore and other areas which became part of Pakistan at the time of Partition. They were deprived of the most basic human rights in J&K.
They (Abdullahs) also blocked domicile status for Valmikis who had come to J&K in 1957 and Gorkhas who had come from Nepal and were soldiers in Dogra kingdom. In a sharp riposte, Dr Vikas Padha mocked Omar saying: His grandfather (Sheikh Abdullah), his father (Farooq Abdullah) and he himself never gave citizenship of J&K to WPRs because they were Hindus and Sikhs. They passed Resettlement Bill in J&K Assembly in 1982 that allowed Muslims from J&K who had settled in Pakistan to resettle in J&K!
All these Hindus and Sikhs were denied domicile of J&K due to Article 370 and got full rights only after August 5, 2019, when this article was amended and rendered ineffective.
