Five phases of the West Bengal assembly election are over and only three are left. Many wishful thinkers anticipated that the Union government would weaken its stance on CAA, and especially NRC as the issue was expected to harm the party in a few constituencies. However, Amit Shah, who, as the Union Home Minister, is responsible for its implementation, has repeatedly said that the CAA, as well as NRC, will be implemented in the state of West Bengal.
Addressing a rally at Swarupnagar, Amit Shah assured that CAA will be implemented in the state and communities like Matua and Namashudra will get citizenship. “Didi likes infiltrators as it is her vote bank. But for 3-3 generations, people of the Matua community-Naamshudra community have not been given citizenship. What is their fault? During independence, everyone including Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad had promised citizenship to the people of the Matua community, I promise you, BJP will give citizenship to each of them,” said Shah.
Moreover, Amit Shah did not budge even on the implementation of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) despite the fact that TMC is spreading fake news that Gorkhas will be evicted, and this might hurt the prospects of BJP in North Bengal. Shah told the Gorkha population that not a single one of them will be evicted under NRC but did not deny its implementation. “NRC has not yet been implemented, but whenever it is done, not a single Gorkha will be asked to leave,” he said.
With the statements of the Union Home Minister, it is very evident that CAA and NRC shall be implemented as soon as BJP forms the government after the declaration of results on May 2. The wishful thinkers and the media which were anticipating that CAA and NRC will not be implemented needs to hear the election rally speeches of Amit Shah, who has raised the issue with even more vigour than Prime Minister Modi.
The BJP has effectively conveyed a crucial message to the people of West Bengal – Mamata Banerjee is trying to stall the implementation of CAA in the state due to the fear of infuriating her predominantly minority vote bank. The Matua community, a scheduled caste Vaishnavite Hindu community that lives in West Bengal as well as Bangladesh has a significant chunk of its people living on the Indian side devoid of citizenship, although they deserve it. Now, if we are to take Prashant Kishor’s assertions made during a Clubhouse interaction recently, the Matua community will predominantly vote for the BJP with no less than 75 per cent of their votes going in BJP’s favour.
Of course, the number will be much higher than what Kishor has put forth. Not only the Matua community, but all Hindus who have been left devoid of Indian citizenship for years on end will also be voting for the BJP en masse, which will exacerbate the rout which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her TMC will face on May’s first Sunday. By attacking Banerjee for stalling CAA in the state, Amit Shah has also been able to convince the voters of Bengal that TMC is absolutely fine with granting citizenship to Bangladeshi infiltrators as long as they are non-Hindu since they then become a fruitful investment for the ‘Ma, Mati, Manush’ party. However, such investments are now about to go sour, as the BJP gets ready to sweep the state.