There is no question of withdrawing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday amidst protests across the country over its implementation along with the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Shah said that the act was “not against minorities”. He was speaking at a rally in Jodhpur of Rajasthan.
Shah, in his speech, attacked the Opposition parties for “spreading lies”. The BJP has decided to go for a “mass outreach programme” to clarify its position and explain the legal ramifications of CAA and NRC. On Sunday, top BJP leaders, including Shah himself, will visit households across the country in which they hope to reach three crore families within a matter of 10 days.
“If you have the courage, debate with me. If not, I can translate it to Italian so you can read it,” he said, in a dig at Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and perhaps Rahul Gandhi as well. It was a direct attack at the Italian roots of Sonia Gandhi.
Shah accused the Opposition of spreading falsehood and misconceptions about the law. “The Opposition parties – Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress are opposing the law and spreading falsehood,” he said.
“What harm have the refugees in Bengal caused to you, Mamata Didi? Why are you against them getting the citizenship?” Shah asked, accusing Banerjee of practising votebank politics. He asked the Dalits and refugees from Bengal to not be scared by what Banerjee was saying and assured them that they would be allowed to live in Bengal with dignity and no one will be ousted.
He also specifically accused the Congress for carrying out a “misinformation campaign”.
“Youngsters are being misled. But no matter what, we will reach out to the minorities and the youngsters,” he said.
Since the law was passed in both houses of the Parliament last month, there have been large-scale protests across the country from political parties as well as from individuals and non-governmental organisations.
In some areas, it turned violent and police have been alleged to be using force to quell the protests, and even unprovoked in many cases. Twenty-five persons have died, most of them from Uttar Pradesh, though police have claimed that no one was killed in police firing.
Nine chief ministers have already officially stated that they won’t implement the law. In Kerala, the ruling party and the opposition came together and passed a resolution in the Assembly against the implementation of the law.
Comments are closed.