Protests against and for CAA have been going on in several parts of the country
The Madhya Pradesh government passed a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on Wednesday and asked the centre to withdraw it. BJP leader Ajit Borasi also criticised the CAA. Last month, BJP MLA from Maihar Narayan Tripathi had spoken out against the amended law.
After the cabinet meeting, Public Relations Minister PC Sharma said, "As the new law is against the basic spirit and character of the Constitution as well as inherent tolerance in our society, so the MP government requests the centre to scrap the CAA 2019. The state government also requests the centre to go ahead with the census exercise only after withdrawing those information from the National Population Register (NPR) that has created apprehension among people."
A BJP leader who contested the last assembly elections from Alot in Ujjain, Ajit Borasi, who's father Premchand Guddu is a former Congress MP, said, "NRC and CAA won't affect only Muslims, but also SCs, STs, and OBCs. Read it once and you will understand. I don't have a herd mentality. I won't endorse what's wrong."
He along with his son had joined the BJP ahead of the assembly election in 2018.
Before the resolution was passed in Madhya Pradesh, five other non-BJP ruled states, including Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh had passed similar resolutions against the CAA.
There seems to be pressure on the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, where thousands of BJP workers from the minority cell have resigned. BJP Leaders like Narayan Tripathi and now Ajit Borasi are also against the amended law, calling it dangerous for the country.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India before 2015 because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.