Make Citizenship Bill people’s campaign, RSS tells cadre

NEW DELHI: The RSS and affiliate organisations are working towards making the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) a nationwide ‘people’s campaign’ to ‘correct historical wrongs done to Hindus’ during Partition and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. According to senior RSS leaders, CAB will be presented as a ‘constitutional and moral obligation’ of the government and Hindu society. “We want people to differentiate between CAB and NRC, and not equate Hindu refugees with Bangladeshi infiltrators,” said a senior RSS functionary. People associated with the RSS plan to reach out to lawmakers, writers, strategists and academics on CAB.

The move comes shortly after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said ‘no Hindu will have to leave the country’ after names of a large number of people from the community were left out from NRC published in Assam.

RSS has asked its cadre to be careful while taking the message forward, given the extensive protests in northeast against CAB. It is preparing an extensive dossier of resolutions passed by the Congress governments of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Constituent Assembly proceedings on ‘promises’ during Partition and after 1971 war which were ‘never fulfilled’.


“We did not talk about transfer of population during Partition. While India remained a secular country, Pakistan and Bangladesh became Islamic countries. The Hindus there were never given a choice. Their safety is our responsibility,” a senior RSS leader told ET on Wednesday. According to RSS, the Meghwals of Sindh in Pakistan and Namashudras in Bangladesh are among the most oppressed who deserve not just protection but recognition by the Indian state for their struggles.”

In recent RSS meetings, it was decided not to talk about NRC till the Ayodhya and Kashmir matters were settled. It was assumed that CAB would make it easier for NRC implementation. “Immigrants from other countries just have to show that they are not Muslims and they have been staying in India for over 6 years to become citizens,” said a person. “We estimate about 10 million to be added to the population after CAB and 95% will not be from northeast,” said an RSS member in Guwahati.