Shah slams Congress, Trinamool for ‘misleading’ nation on CAA

Jabalpur: Union Home Minister Amit Shah addresses a rally as a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) campaign to create awareness about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), at Garrison Ground in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh on Jan 12, 2020.

Jabalpur/Bhopal,  Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday hit out at the Congress party and Trinamool Congress for “misleading” the nation on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and challenged them to point out a single provision in the law which allegedly takes away anyone’s citizenship.

Two days after CAA came into force through an official notification, Shah picked up Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh to mobilise the people for CAA.

Many non-BJP ruled states including Madhya Pradesh have announced that they will not implement CAA.

Shah challenged Chief Minister Kamal Nath to establish that the CAA was going to take away the citizenship of any bona fide Indian. “I challenge Mamata Banerjee and Rahul ‘Baba’ to find out a provision from CAA that can take citizenship away from anyone in this country.”

He said Hindus, Christian, Sikhs and Buddhists from Pakistan and other South Asian countries have the same rights in this country and pledged that CAA will give citizenship to them.

Shah addressed a large rally at Garrison ground as part of BJP’s outreach to create awareness on CAA. BJP launched a 10-day door-to-door campaign a week ago to address the people. Senior party leaders including the former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state unit president Rakesh Singh were also present.

“The message is loud and clear for Congressmen. Oppose the (CAA) to the extent you can. We will rest only after giving all these people citizenship. No one can stop us from doing so,” Shah said.

“The Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian refugees from Pakistan have the same rights in India as we have,” he said.

“The Congress manifesto for Rajasthan Assembly polls last year had promised citizenship to the Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan. Why they are opposing BJP now,” he asked. “Gehlotji (Rajasthan CM), check your manifesto,” he said.

Referring to JNU, Shah said that some boys shouted anti-national slogans, “Bharat tera tukde ho ek hazar, inshallah, inshallah. Rahul Baba and Kejriwal want to save them. Are they your cousins? Such people deserve to be behind the bars.”

Shah said that the Ram temple will be built at Ayodhya in four months. “The building is going to come up so tall that it will touch the sky.”

While BJP is drumming up support for the CAA it hasd faced some dissent within. On Sunday the party expelled Javed Baig, media in charge of its minority front for reportedly hobnobbing with groups opposing CAA and NRC.

BJP office-bearer Satyendra Bhushan Singh wrote a letter to Baig saying his activities in the recent past have come to the party’s notice.

“Opposing CAA amounts to involvement in anti-party activities. This act of yours has tarnished the image of the party. State President Rakesh Singh has expelled you from the primary membership of the party,” the letter said.

CAA protests continue in Bhopal with hundreds of students and local people joining them every day. Asked about the developments Baig said, many among the minority community are poor, with lack of education and belong to labour class that has to work on daily wages for survival. Most of them do not have documents or resources to get them made. In old days deliveries were performed by midwives at home and documentation was not considered important.

“There is already an 11-year-old law in India. When we can give citizenship to people like Adnan Sami through that law, we can also give the rest to other people. Then where is the need to bring CAA?” he said.

“I never wrote anything against the party or went outside the party line and said anything yet the party has acted against me,” he said.

Several leaders of BJP Minority Morcha in Khargone and Guna started resigning last week. In Khargone, minority officials from across the district reached the BJP office collectively to resign. Party sources said 176 minority activists have resigned so far.

Previous articleUK royals gather for talks over Harry-Meghan’s future
Next articleHyderabad police deny permission for Kanhaiya Kumar meet