The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was passed at midnight in the Lok Sabha with 311 votes in favour. The late-night passage of the bill, however, in no way deterred liberals from showcasing a meltdown of epic proportions. The North East meanwhile faces a bandh to ‘protest’ the bill.
As Amit Shah’s fiery reply to his parliamentary colleagues began, liberals on Twitter took to their timelines to vent out their frustration. It became more than evident that leave alone the Lok Sabha, the bill is very likely to pass in the Rajya Sabha handsomely too, where the BJP is short of majority.
What came in handy for many of those outraged on the issue was a New York Times article titled: “India Prepares to Block Naturalization of Muslims.” Saba Naqvi gladly shared the same, saying that we as a country have taken two steps back into regression. In another tweet, Saba said that the Supreme Court must strike down CAB, lest India is to be a ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
Yes, the world is watching us take two steps backwards…India Takes Step Toward Blocking Naturalization for Muslims https://t.co/FZZUll5l9r
— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) December 10, 2019
If #SupremeCourt does not strike down #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 we would have legally become a HinduRashtra…
LIKE our economy, our national vision shrinking.— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) December 9, 2019
Rana Ayyub, who works as a part-time journalist for any western publication that is willing to accept her bunkum, shared a post by the ‘The New Yorker’ on December 4th,(after the Union Cabinet nod to CAB) which claimed that Muslims in India lived in constant fear of assassination.
The Union Cabinet today has approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill that grants citizenship to all persecuted minorities except Muslims. What could be more brazenly majoritarian ? https://t.co/q7H1ZWnnbv
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) December 4, 2019
Speaking of New York, Times Square champion Rajdeep Sardesai opined that India is closer to being a ‘Hindu Pakistan’ and that a majority government should not become a ‘majoritarian’ one.
My take on CAB : India is not and must never be a 'Hindu Pakistan'.. a majority government must not become a majoritarian one! https://t.co/mVeFH9bcHD
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) December 9, 2019
Arfa Khanum Sherwani, journalist with The Wire, who is thrashed by almost everyone she interviews, preached about the inherent secularism of India and how Congress was not responsible for Partition. Why is she getting defensive, though?
No matter how cleverly worded this statement is but don’t be fooled that India becomes a Hindu country just because Pakistan decided to be an Islamic nation.
India’s foundation was always secular.
And the bigger lie is that the Congress was responsible for the partition of India. https://t.co/hKN46nCNfJ— Arfa Khanum Sherwani (@khanumarfa) December 9, 2019
Suhasini Haider thought it best to twerk Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ and said that India must not awaken into this dawn.
Actually, a betrayal of those very values, as it discriminates on the basis of religion. This is not the dawn into which our countrymen must awake. https://t.co/4EfPiXpwu2
— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) December 10, 2019
Ramchandra Guha, the blue-eyed boy of Lutyen’s and a ‘historian’ by his own claims deemed it appropriate to blame Savarkar for supporting Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory. This despite the fact that @TrueIndology has debunked the relevance of the statement.
Savarkar, 1943: "I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's two-nation theory. We Hindus are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations".
The Home Minister, a professed Savarkarite, has no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's two-nation theory either.— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) December 10, 2019
‘The Peeing Human’, a refuge handle for all liberal bad-boys/girls suggested that the times of Twitter outrage are over and that the fight must be taken to the streets. Sounds familiar? Yes, Jignesh Mevani said the same. The handle also giggled about their successful attempt at making #IndiaRejectsCAB trend.
#IndiaRejectsCAB was at no.16 an hour back, then the peeing army entered the field 😎 Aisi hee unity bani rahi to ye BJP-RSS ke gunde aka tukde tukde gang/anti-nationals/urban-Jinnahs ki aisi taisi kar denge.
Twitter se nikal ke sadko par utarne ka time ab door nahi hai shayad. pic.twitter.com/4qRZrBaRl3— Official PeeingHuman (@thepeeinghuman) December 9, 2019
Recently released on bail from Tihar, and facing charges of massive corruption scandals, P Chidambaram foresaw the future and said that the battle ground will be shifting to the Supreme Court soon.
CAB is unconstitutional. Parliament passes a Bill that is patently unconstitutional and the battle ground shifts to the Supreme Court.
Elected Parliamentarians are abdicating their responsibilities in favour of lawyers and judges!
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) December 10, 2019
Mercy-petitioner Prashant Bhushan concluded that it was in-fact the BJP and those supporting the bill that comprised the infamous ‘Tukde-Tukde Gang’. He also called the bill unconstitutional.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill which seeks to grant citizenship in India on the basis of religion is not only unconstitutional but it goes against the very grain of our Republic. By seeking to divide the country on religious lines, its sponsors are the real "tukde-tukde" gang!
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) December 10, 2019
However, there was one particular tweet which had Twitter rolling all over. Harsh Mander started a Civil Disobedience Movement, details of which are given below.
If CAB is passed, this is my civil disobedience:
I will officially register Muslim. I will then refuse to submit any documents to NRC. I will finally demand the same punishment as any undocumented Muslim- detention centre & withdrawn citizenship.
Join this civil disobedience— Harsh Mander (@harsh_mander) December 10, 2019
Other insignificant liberals who outraged included:
I really don’t get Amit Shah’s point. Because Pakistan and Bangladesh have treated their religious minorities badly, does India have to equalise things by replicating religious discrimination?
— Supriya Sharma (@sharmasupriya) December 9, 2019
SHAME! https://t.co/5DZkmpINsB
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) December 9, 2019
The #CABBill & #NRC are perfect ingredients for a government to unleash state terror on citizens, army of bureaucratic surveillance is possible, sending citizens scurrying for papers, living in fear of state power to exclude and harass. The Big State triumphs, citizens powerless
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) December 10, 2019
Ravish Kumar took to Facebook to make his discomfort known. In his post, Ravish shared a video of students of various colleges and universities in Assam carrying out a mashaal march against CAB. He also asked why the media was not covering these protests and further questioned the North East parliamentarians for claiming that all was normal in the region.
Everyone knew that the bill would have no troubles passing the Lok Sabha, courtesy the huge majority of the BJP. After the bill passes the Rajya Sabha, watch out for these same people on social media, and observe how they have yet another meltdown. This week is going to be an extremely entertaining one.