My Gandhi vs your Gandhi over CAA: President Kovind says citizenship law fulfills Mahatma’s wish

Both the government and the protesters invoke Mahatma Gandhi to justify their action with regard to the Citizenship Amendment Act. The father of the nation stands divided in two ideologically contrasting camps.

HIGHLIGHTS

• President Kovind said CAA fulfills Mahatma Gandhi's wish
• Kovind said Gandhi wanted protection of Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan
• Anti-CAA protesters have been invoking Mahatma Gandhi to oppose new law

Mahatma Gandhi today stands divided over moral validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) brought by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in December 2019. Both, the government and pro-CAA supporters on one hand and the anti-CAA protesters on the other hand, invoke Mahatma Gandhi to ramp up their positions.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday asserted in his address to joint sitting of both houses of Parliament that enactment of the CAA fulfilled the wish of Mahatma Gandhi.

It pleases me that both houses of Parliament have fulfilled the wish of Mahatma Gandhi by enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act, said President Kovind, maintaining that the 2019 Lok Sabha election gave a mandate to the Modi government for making new India.

Invoking the father of nation, President Kovind said, Mahatma Gandhi had said, Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan who don’t wish to live there can come to India. It is the duty of the Government of India to ensure a normal life for them.

His statement was followed by a long thumping of the desk by the ruling coalition. The desk-thumping was so long that President Kovind had to stop thrice before he could continue his address. Some of the members shouted slogans.

This is the not the first time that the government has invoked Mahatma Gandhi to defend the CAA in the middle of protests against the citizenship law.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called the passing of CAA as fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi’s wish while speaking at Belur Math in West Bengal on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

The CAA has induced protests at several places across the country with activists professing allegiance to Mahatma Gandhi in declaring the amended citizenship law immoral and communal. Woman activists, particularly those sitting at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, have become the symbol of these anti-CAA protests.

Slogans that are raised at anti-CAA protests often include the azaadi call saying, Humein chahiye Gandhi wali azaadi [we need freedom that Gandhi espoused for].

Posters of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, along with those of BR Ambedkar, the father of the Constitution, are prominently displayed at protest sites and carried by protesters.

Invocation of Mahatma Gandhi by protesters at Shaheen Bagh and elsewhere, and adoption of Gandhian strategy of non-violent agitation have put the Modi government on back foot.

Many believe that the Modi government has not resorted to police action to evict protesters from Shaheen Bagh in the heart of the national capital primarily due to the Gandhian method Satyagraha -- adopted by the protesters.

Mahatma Gandhi had developed Satyagraha, meaning persistence for truth, as a tool of resistance or civil non-cooperation with the British colonial government during India’s struggle for freedom.

The anti-CAA protesters say their sit-in at Shaheen Bagh is modern-day Satyagraha against what they call divisive law of the Modi government.

The assertion on Mahatma Gandhi’s wish in enactment of the CAA by the Modi government is clearly an attempt to discredit the Gandhian claim of the anti-CAA protesters.

This might leave many non-participating citizens in a state of confusion about who is right in invoking Mahatma Gandhi to drive validity of the new citizenship law or of the anti-CAA protest.

To buttress his point further, President Kovind in his address went on to say that various political parties and leaders have supported this idea of Mahatma Gandhi at different times. To respect the wish of our nation builders is our responsibility, President Kovind said.

The President referred to persecution of minorities in Pakistan and asked the world community to take note and appropriate steps to stop harassment in the name of religion.

On citizenship law, President Kovind said people of all faiths from any part of the world can acquire Indian citizenship as the relevant process and law have not been changed.