Bengaluru: Hatred for Modi is not uncommon. Hatred for his schemes is also very frequent. 

But can hatred for Modi turn into hatred for India and the communities which are the targets of his schemes? 

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), now a law, was passed with a view to help distressed and religiously persecuted Hindus and other non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. 
As usual, the anti-Modi coterie was and is still screaming its lungs out to defame and malign him, saying he is step-motherly, communal inter alia. 

Even as the two houses of the Indian Parliament passed the CAB with robust numbers, as many as five states – Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – have decided not to honour the law. 

The defiance may have sprung up from the abhorrence these non-BJP rulers share against PM Narendra Modi. But keeping in consonance with the traits and tenets of a healthy and functional democracy, there is no room from personal animosity. It is incumbent upon every state to implement the order, as per article 256 of the Indian Constitution. 

By shamelessly asserting that the law will not be implemented in the states, the CMs of these states are openly telling the members of these humiliated and mortified non-Muslim communities from the three countries that they are persona non grata in India, in spite of the Modi government welcoming them with both hands. 

<

Federalism, another rich characteristic of our democracy, doesn’t mean the states have the power to negate laws made by the Indian Parliament. Except for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, which had the power of framing its own constitution, but now, the Indian laws apply there too, without fear of favour. 

As a BJP source said, “It is just political shenanigans and fearmongering that these politicians are resorting to in order to fish some votes in their favour.”