Pak-Muslims Convert To Hinduism for Indian Passport?

Implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is considered to be a point of celebration for the majority of Indians in almost all the states, but officially Kerala and Tamil Nadu have mentioned that they are not going to implement it in their states.

Kerala Finance Minister Balagopal said that CAA won't be implemented in Kerala and it only paves the way for creating divisions among the Indian people.

But the irony is that the passport is issued as per the norms of the center but not the states.

In the first place, CAA aims to provide citizenship to migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian communities who entered India before December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Bangladesh.

In fact, Muslims are not included in this list as the above-mentioned countries are theocratic Muslim countries which implies that Muslims don't get ill treatment or threats based on religion there.

This holds a firm logic but still Kerala and Tamil Nadu are opposing it. Why do they do so?

They simply do so because the BJP government is implementing it? Or else, they want the Muslims of the above-mentioned countries also to be given citizenship?

The issue is that many refugees who are seeking Indian citizenship from the above three countries are non-Muslims.

If at all Muslims are seeking any such refugee and eventual citizenship, they have other ulterior motives which were found by Indian intelligence authorities.

Today, a casual conversation regarding the CAA occurred in a taxi in Mumbai.

"India is thriving and the people of the above-mentioned countries may show interest to settle down in India for a better life.

But in that process, if the Muslim population increases phenomenally, then again that would pose a problem to the ecosystem of BJP.

So, they prevented Muslims from the above countries," said Afzal Khan, a taxi driver from Mumbai.

In reply to this, "Many Muslims are coming from Myanmar, but they are being considered for citizenship as that country is not a theocratic Muslim country. BJP is not against Muslims. They are seeing something fishy if Muslims from theocratic Muslim nations seek refuge and citizenship in India based on religious threats," said Narayan Deshpande, a passenger.

To this, the taxi driver did't respond but said, "If Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan wish to settle down in India with citizenship, the only way left now is to convert to Hinduism or Christianity. Thus, BJP wishes to reduce the Muslim population by luring the youngsters of those countries."

In fact, how people perceive certain Acts, Amendments, and Laws is interesting to underline though the fact and reason in their perception is a subjective matter.

- Ameya Kulkarni