Citizenship Bill: BJP manifesto drops Parsis and Christians, then rewritten

BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, member of the manifesto committee, said “it was an error” and “there is no change in the party’s policy to protect all minorities”.

“The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill remains the same. There is no change in our policy of protecting all minorities. In fact, in the Sankalp Patra, under the Inclusive Development title, the party makes it clear that we are committed to the empowerment and ‘development with dignity’ of all minorities — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis etc,” Yadav told The Indian Express. He said he had given instructions to add Christians to the list in the party document.

The printed version of the Sankalp Patra stated: “We are committed to the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill for the protection of individuals of religious minority communities from neighbouring countries escaping persecution. We will make all efforts to clarify the issues to the sections of population from the Northeastern states who have expressed apprehensions regarding the legislation. We reiterate our commitment to protect the linguistic, cultural and social identity of the people of Northeast. Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs escaping persecution from India’s neighbouring countries will be given citizenship in India.”

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BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi, another member of the manifesto committee, pointed out that the persecuted population of Christians and Parsis in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are minimal. But she underlined that the Bill would cover all minorities of Indian origin in these countries.

“Bangladesh and Pakistan were formed on religious reasons but both countries had in the beginning adopted secularism as a policy. Within a short span of time, the minorities there started getting persecuted. The percentage of the minority population in these countries speak for itself,” she said.

Maintaining that there is no data to show that countries other than India accept persecuted Hindus from these countries as refugees, Lekhi said: “India happens to be the parent country for them. India has to give refuge to these sections (Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs), and it is our duty because they are homeless and faceless where they are persecuted.”

She said there are many countries that give asylum to persecuted Christians from these countries and cited the example of Canada offering citizenship to a Christian woman in Pakistan accused of blasphemy.