No Indian Muslim will lose citizenship, says Rajnath at Ghaziabad rally

Speaking about his Ghaziabad connection, the defence minister said at Ghanta Ghar Ramlila ground that it was from Ghaziabad that he won his maiden general election in 2009

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that no Indian Muslim will lose his or her citizenship due to the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh addresses the rally at Ghanta Ghar Ramlila Maidan in Ghaziabad on Wednesday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Addressing an election rally in support of legislator Atul Garg, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Ghaziabad parliamentary constituency, Singh said the BJP does not engage in politics on the basis of caste, creed and religion.

“We said that if our government is formed, we will make a citizenship law. And I want to tell you that after becoming the home minister (in 2014), I started this process by talking to the Prime Minister but due to a lack of clear majority in the Rajya Sabha, that bill could not be passed there whereas it was passed in the Lok Sabha,” Singh said.

“Muslims living in India are not going to lose their citizenship. This kind of confusion is being created by our opponents. You go and tell our Muslim sisters and brothers about this,” the BJP leader told the gathering.

The senior BJP leader heaped praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said it was a ‘Modi miracle’ that helped elevate the country’s economy from rank 11 in 2014 to among the top five in the world in 2018-19.

Talking about the party’s decision to not field the sitting MP Gen (retd) VK Singh, the BJP leader said that the party changed candidates because “others too needed to be given an opportunity”.

“What happens in Meerut and Ghaziabad has effects across the country... You helped Gen VK Singh (retd) become an MP from Ghaziabad twice. But, the party takes decisions about candidates and they can be changed so that others too can be given opportunity,” he said.

Speaking about his Ghaziabad connection, he told the gathering at the Ghanta Ghar Ramlila Ground that he won his first Lok Sabha election from Ghaziabad in 2009.

“That time (in 2009), our leaders told me that Ghaziabad was a “lost seat” and I should not contest from there. But I went ahead as I was hopeful of a big victory. It happened as I thought. In 2014, circumstances changed when PM Modi decided to contest from Kashi (Varanasi) and the party decided that I should contest from nearby Lucknow. This time, too, I decided that if I will start campaigning, I will do it from Ghaziabad,” the senior BJP leader said.

Reacting to Rajnath’s speech, the Congress claimed that the BJP is inviting its senior leaders in the first leg of campaigning itself as they fear that they may lose the Ghaziabad seat. “The BJP has lot of answers to give when it comes to corruption. The details of the PM Cares fund are not public while those of the electoral bonds were made public only after the Supreme Court intervened,” said Vinit Tyagi, district president, Congress.