Need a more mature response to citizenship protests

Central ministers have been less than candid about NRC, NRIC and NPR, encouraging suspicion about their motives

The big question as the New Year dawned was whether the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis, raising questions about some fundamentals of the Indian Union. Police brutality against critics is no reason for not hailing the CAA as an act of humanity of which Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad — three persons the protesters invoke — would surely have been proud. But as pressures mount, Narendra Modi should think of a more mature response than tweeting a complimentary certificate from a supposedly holy man he may revere but