'Why not Muslims?' BJP's Chandra Kumar Bose questions CAA

Stoking fresh controversy, West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose Tuesday went against party's official line and advocated inclusion of Muslims in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Bose, who is the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, has been at loggerheads with the state unit on a range of issues and had also called for a change in the state leadership.

He asked the party not to compare the country with any other nation as "India has always been a country open to all religions and communities".

"If Muslims are not being persecuted in their home country they would not come so there's no harm in including them. However, this is not entirely true - what about Baluch who live in Pakistan & Afghanistan? What about Ahwadiyya in Pakistan?," Bose said in a tweet.

"Don't equate India or compare it with any other nation - as it's a nation Open to all religions and communities," he said in another tweet.

His comments are in complete contrast to that by the party leadership which had advocated in favour of including non-Muslims in the list of refugees who can get citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

According to the Act, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution will be granted Indian citizenship after staying in the country for five years.

Protests against the CAA demanding revoking of the law have rocked the country, including in West Bengal, in the past few days.