Justice Kolse Patil, Former Bombay High Court Judge, CAA cannot be implimented so easily. The ruling compensation is using it to divert, make chaos and keep people under tension.
What do you think of the NDA government saying that they will notify as the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act and it will finally be implemented? Critics have said that this is a diversionary tactic, some sort of a headline management considering that this is happening even as the electoral bonds issue is being heard in the Supreme Court?
Justice Kolse Patil: I have always been saying that there are deeper conspiracies in the government. However, these draconian laws cannot be implemented easily. And this is an election period. So, just to pressurise people to bring their forms or take away their voting rights because the community which they are targeting are not their voters. So, either they will discriminate, discard the election list, that is the voters list, and they will divert the attention of minorities.
But this law has a long-term effect. This is not only for minorities. They could ask me for the required certificates of my father and grandfather. We are from villages and we do not have those records. And they will ask us to bring those papers. So, this is how the deeper state does not allow people to live peacefully. They just want them to be under tension. These laws cannot be implemented overnight. Now, the Achar Sanhita is expected within 8-10 days. So, keeping people under tension, that is the only thing.
The government has maintained that CAA does not really discriminate it and does not include any provision to strip away citizenship it only is intended at giving citizenship to minorities like Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs. Where do you stand on this? It cannot be implemented straight away with several petitions lying in the Supreme Court but where do you stand on this argument about the CAA being divisive?
Justice Kolse Patil: It is only harassment and there is nothing else. I have been moving throughout the country. I can see NRC and then I said that targeting Muslims is just a front. We all are targets because they just want to destabilise the country and take advantage of this diversion of attention from the main issues. That is all.
I do not think there is any other point to discuss. They will divert, they will make chaos, they will keep people under tension.
