Derek does a Mahua Moitra. JD(U) MP Ram Chandra Prasad Singh wipes the house floor with him

Even as the opposition parties continued with some of the most bizarre and senseless arguments against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, Derek O’Brien joined the bandwagon with some of the most absurd arguments against the proposed legislation. In a speech laced with unimpressive rhetoric, the Rajya Sabha MP tried to replicate his much-hyped party colleague Mahua Moitra when it came to articulation.

The TMC MP tried to draw an absurd, far-fetched analogy between the CAB and the Nazi concentration camps, an illogical comparison that only he can possibly understand. Starting in Bengali language, he said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat their mistakes. I want to go back 84 years to two laws passed in Nazi Germany… laws that have an eerie similarity to laws passed today”. He added, “In 1933 there were concentration camps… in 2018 we have detention camps where, by the way, 60 per cent are Bengali Hindus. In 1935 there were citizenship laws to protect people with German blood… today we have a faulty bill (referring to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019, or CAB) that wants to define who true Indian citizens are.”

Going further in his attempts to draw a link between the two completely unrelated issues, he also said, “In 1935 you needed an identity to prove your Aryan lineage… you were given something called an ‘ancestor pass’. In 2018 you need a piece of paper to prove you are an Indian citizen. In 1940 there was a plan to deport Jews… called Madagascar Plan. In 2018 we have the ‘Maha’ Plan, also called NRC.”

It did not take long before a lawmaker absolutely demolished Derek’s bizarre and illogical arguments. JD(U) MP Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, who convincingly rejected the opposition arguments that CAB is hit by Articles 14 and 15, went hammer and tongs after the TMC MP. He started by exposing the fallacy behind the analogy that Derek drew between the Nazi concentration camps and the CAB. He said that in case of Nazis, the concentration camps were for German citizens themselves, but in the present case there is no such similarity. He then went on to emphasise how everyone has equal rights in India, and how minorities have been able to enjoy immense political power in the country. On the question of NRC, the JD(U) MP made it clear that national development is supposed to take place for the citizens of this country, and there was no logic of letting the benefits of development to be shared by non-citizens (illegal immigrants).

Ram Chandra Prasad Singh then came down heavily on Derek O’Brien for raising the question of morality against the JD(U). In his speech, the TMC MP had said, “I implore BJD and JDU leaders… you have to take a stand today. You will have to answer your future generations. What will you say when your grandchildren ask you 20 years from now which button did you press?” He then went on to detail how the NDA in Bihar has been instrumental in the development of the Muslims in the state of Bihar in all walks of life. He exposed how even Muslim graveyards were in a dire state before the NDA came to power, and it was the NDA government which fortfiied 6,000 graveyards in the state. He then expressed dismay at how those who have failed to protect even the Muslim graveyards call themselves secular and those who work for the development of Muslims are labelled as communal.

Ram Chandra Prasad Singh did not mince his words and absolutely exposed Derek O’Brien and the opposition for instilling a sense of panic and fear among the Muslim community. His speech really reveals how certain vested interests are trying to create the misconception that Muslims are not being given the right to live in India peacefully. He therefore demolished all arguments made by TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP.

Derek’s speech was already disastrous and an unsuccessful attempt at using shoddy articulation skills to mislead the nation about the CAB. It was already unimpressive, misleading and lacklustre. The JD(U) MP with his compelling arguments has only made Derek O’Brien a source of derision which must have left him and the TMC red faced.