On a day India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the citizenship law was brought to "correct a historical injustice and fulfil a promise to minorities in the neighbouring countries," a member of country’s legislative (MLA) assembly of his right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said the country should not be divided in the name of religion as it is against the spirit of constitution, Indian media outlets reported.
Narayan Tripathi, the MLA from central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, said, “The country should not be divided in the name of religion. Either you are with or against the constitution or if you do not follow the constitution, you should tear it up and throw it away,”
“I come from a village and it is not easy to even make Aadhaar cards. People have to carry papers to the local offices for days,” he added.
"People have stopped looking at each other. Muslims live in my in village and used to wish us every time they saw us but these days they do not even like to see us. Peace is not possible in such circumstances," he added.
Tripathi said speaking against the citizenship law does not mean he is willing to join the Congress.
"I am not willing to join the Congress, neither (am I) leaving the BJP. The CAA was enacted only for vote-bank, which is benefiting the BJP. This is not going to benefit the country," he said.
Last year in July, Tripathi and another BJP MLA Sharad Kol had voted with the Congress and allied MLAs on the Criminal Law Amendment Bill in the assembly. However, few weeks later, both the legislators had reaffirmed their loyalty to the BJP.
Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act have raged across India since December. At least 25 people have died and thousands of protesters have been arrested. The new law eases the path for people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to gain Indian citizenship, but only non-Muslims.
Critics fear the new law will be used to discriminate against Muslims in India, one of many measures issued by Modi's Hindu nationalist government that they fear is chipping away at India's secular constitution.
