Cong opposing Mahatma’s dream: Anurag Thakur on CAA

If the Congress had not divided the country on the basis of religion, CAA would not be needed today, he said

The Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs, Anurag Thakur, during his visit to Amritsar on Thursday said the Congress government is opposing Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of granting citizenship to millions of refugees. He said the Citizens Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) is a law to grant citizenship, not to take it away.

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After paying obeisance at Golden Temple, Anurag Thakur visited the district BJP headquarters Shaheed Harbans Lal Khanna memorial to spread awareness about the purpose of CAA among public and BJP workers.

Thakur, accompanied by state BJP head Shwait Malik and other party leaders, said, “The Congress and Opposition parties should not spread confusion among people about CAA. The Act is a law to grant citizenship to minorities who are victims of religious persecution in neighbouring countries. Under this law, there is no provision for any citizen of the country to prove his citizenship or get his citizenship taken away. He said that while this law should have been praised, the Congress and its allies sought to breach peace by lying and confusing people for their political gain.”

“Today, the Congress party has turned against the ideology of its own party leaders and Mahatma Gandhi in their greed for power,” he added.

Anurag Thakur continued, “Congress is also lying about detention centres. A report published by PIB on 13 December 2011 shows that detention centers were built during the Congress governments. NRC is also a gift of the Congress which was brought into force by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi during the 1985 Assam Agreement and made into a law. Even though it was amended by Congress, they are spreading lies about it all over the country.”

Thakur said, “CAA is a commendable attempt to give citizenship to the minorities of the neighbouring countries by correcting the mistake of the post-independence Nehru-Liaquat agreement. In 1947, the population of minorities in Pakistan was 23%, which decreased to 3.7% in 2011, in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1947, the population of minorities was 22% which decreased to just 7.8% in 2011. Millions of refugees are facing torture on a daily basis and do not get proper facilities, education, health services, jobs and many more.”

“At the time of independence, if the Congress had not divided the country on the basis of religion, then the citizenship amendment law would not be needed today”, he further added.

He further added, “In 2019, the BJP has resolved many problems that the Congress Party had kept hanging over the years for political gains including removing article 370 and getting Muslim women out of triple talaq, strengthening the spirit of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Vishwas’.”