The country has been experiencing various movements and protests against the contentious CAA and NRC, as there is a widespread fear that the implementation of such laws would discriminate against people on the basis of religious affiliations and thereby hurt the secular fabric of the country. It is in this context that while speaking at an event organised by the Tripura Rajya Upajati Parishad in Agartala, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat took a swipe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah and said that he should be down as the “Hate Minister” and not the Home Minister. The senior politburo member made the comment about Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the context of the remarks that he had made on the protestors of Shaheen Bagh. She said, “Home Minister Amit Shah asked people during campaign for Delhi election to push the button in EVMs so hard that Shaheen Bagh gets electric current from it. Can a Home Minister give such a speech? That is why I say Amit Shah is not the Home Minister of India; he is doing the work of hate minister of the country.”
Vrinda Karat also accused the BJP of doing politics on communal lines through the force of brute majoritarianism. She said, “ Since 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP thought they can do anything they wish. They are fulfilling their agenda in the name of religion by using this sheer majority. But all the same, a new direction in politics has come to be born and people are now speaking against this government. Today people are protesting in every city and village with the Constitution in their hands while Modi and Shah are bust polarising people socio-culturally and serving attacks on the nation’s economy and its politics. People are uniting in their struggle by the day.” She also said that if the NRC and CAA were really to be implemented soon then it is the tribal belt of India including Northeast India that will be worst hit by it. She also urged people to not support the idea of citizenship based on religious affiliations and stand in support of the Indian Constitution. She also accused the current government of nurturing the climate of hate in the country and normalising the cult of violence and crime.
