Indore: In a major jolt to Bhartiya Janta Party, corporator Usman Patel resigned from all the party posts on Saturday to protest against Citizenship Amendment Act and National Population Register.
The lone Muslim corporator of the BJP in the party-ruled Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) on Saturday announced that he was resigning from the "changed" BJP, which he said is doing the "politics of hate" over the new citizenship law.
In a letter to the district BJP unit, Usman Patel, the corporator from the municipal ward number 38, wrote that he was resigning from all posts in the party with which he has been associated for last 40 years. Patel has posted a video of the announcement on social media. "I joined BJP 40 years ago after getting inspired by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The BJP has changed now. It is now doing the politics of hate," he said in the video clip.
The passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Parliament in December, 2019, has triggered protests in many parts of the country. Patel stated that CAA was against the Constitution and Muslims. "I and my friends are resigning from the primary membership of the party," he stated. Patel also added that he would lend his support to the ongoing protests against the CAA at different places.
In January, at least 80 Muslim leaders of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh had resigned from its primary membership in protest against the CAA, calling it a "divisive" measure. The CAA provides Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who had migrated to India before December 31, 2014, owing to religious persecution in Muslim-dominated Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
BJP’s take
BJP city president Gopi Nema told media that BJP has informed all members that CAA is not against Muslim community or any other religion. “We have counselled them for the same and even provided them the copies of the Act. Usman Patel might have resigned from the party under pressure of his community.”
After his resignation, it is believed that Patel will join Congress.
"I joined BJP 40 years ago after getting inspired by former prime minister Atal Beihari Vajpayee. The BJP has changed now”
