New Delhi, Jan. 17 -- The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must have been taken aback by the range and intensity of the protests that have erupted across the country against the new citizenship law. Notwithstanding the legislative focus only on non-Muslims, the BJP -led government at the centre apparently presumed that it had drafted the legislation carefully enough to preclude criticism. The reason for its confidence was probably that the law is meant exclusively for persecuted non-Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and does not deal with an estimated 200 million Indian Muslims, a point which the BJP's spokespersons have been at pains to emphasize.
What must have surprised the party is that there should have been such a wi...