Mobilisation of protesters against CAA not to sustain for long: BJP gen sec

BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao on Tuesday said that the current mobilization of protesters against the amended citizenship law will not sustain for long as there is no "merit" in it. "The protest is on a non-issue. It is notional, imaginary and anxiety based. There is no merit in it. The mobilization of protesters against the law will not sustain for long. There is no life for such protest," Rao told reporters.

The mobilization for the protest will not sustain more than a month because the amended law does not take away the rights of Indian Muslims, he said. On Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray likening the police crackdown on students of Jamia Millia Islamia to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Rao said, "By equating with Jallianwala Bagh massacre, he is insulting the martyrs. He is also insulting democracy and the entire system."

Asked if the CAA will have any impact on the forthcoming polls in some states and Delhi, he said there will not be any polarization of the electorate. "I don't see it as an election issue except in West Bengal".

He also hit back at the Congress saying that the age-old party is "emerging by default as Muslim League" and it does not know why it is protesting against the CAA. According to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 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 there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.