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Reconsider opposition to CAA: Amit Shah to Congress, AAP and TMC
Amit Shah accused the opposition of instigating the youth against the Citizenship Amendment Act and asked students to study the new law to understand it properly.
Amid protests in various parts of the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday urged the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) to stop “spreading rumours” about the new law which he said has created a violent atmosphere in the country.
He also asked them to reconsider their opposition to the law as it would not lead to anyone’s betterment.
At a public rally in Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana division in Poryahat assembly segment, Shah appealed youths and students not to get swayed by Congress-APP-TMC’s rumours and study the provisions of the CCA, which doesn’t speak about taking away one’s nationality but on the contrary it advocates providing citizenship to poor and persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
“I want to explain that the CCA was necessitated to give citizenship rights to thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly comprising poor Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains, Christians and Parsis ousted from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. But the Congress party is playing vote bank politics over the issue,” Shah said.
He added, “I want to appeal to students and youths from this stage to study the Act. It nowhere speaks about taking away one’s nationality. On the contrary, it provides citizenship rights to poor sufferers.”
He accused the opposition of instigating the youth with rumours.
“Don’t get swayed by rumours as the Congress, APP and TMC are misguiding you and have created a violent atmosphere in the country. I also urge the Congress-APP-TMC to reconsider their stand as it would not lead to anyone’s betterment.”
Reacting to Shah’s appeal, Congress’ state spokesperson Kishore Shahdeo said, “It is not that the Congress had not presented its stand in Parliament during discussions on citizenship amendment bill. But the BJP leaders are so arrogant they don’t want to listen any one.”
He added, “Now when people are venting their anger and disturbances are spreading from one state to another, the BJP is blaming the Congress for this. People had not given majority to the BJP to enact laws against its own citizens.”
Opposition to the new law has singed many parts of the country with Assam being the first to be rocked by two days of violent protests last week that left five dead, four of them in police firing.
In Kolkata on Monday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee led a massive rally against the citizenship law and dared the BJP-led Centre to implement the new legislation in her state.
Also on Monday, the Union home ministry issued an advisory to state governments to closely track social media messages that have the potential to incite violence as protests against the amended citizenship law that started with a march in Delhi’s Jamia Millia University continued to spread over fears that the law would be used to isolate undocumented migrants of one religion.
