WB BJP vice-president wants Muslims to be included in CAA

Stoking a fresh controversy, West Bengal BJP vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose Tuesday went against the party's official line and advocated the inclusion of Muslims in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Bose, who is the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, has been at loggerheads with the state unit on a range of issues and had also called for a change in the state leadership.

He asked the party not to compare the country with any other nation as "India has always been a country open to all religions and communities". "If Muslims are not being persecuted in their home country they would not come so there's no harm in including them. However, this is not entirely true - what about Baluch who lives in Pakistan & Afghanistan? What about Ahwadiyya in Pakistan?" Bose said in a tweet.

"Don't equate India or compare it with any other nation - as it's a nation Open to all religions and communities," he said in another tweet. His comments are in complete contrast to that by the party leadership which had advocated in favor of including non-Muslims in the list of refugees who can get citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

According to the Act, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, and facing religious persecution will be granted Indian citizenship after staying in the country for five years. Protests against the CAA demanding to revoke the law have rocked the country, including in West Bengal, in the past few days.