Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a meeting of BJP polling booth workers, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, in Hyderabad, Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: A day after notifying rules for the contentious amendments to the citizenship law, union home minister, Amit Shah who was in Hyderabad said Congress leaders have been 'spreading lies' about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Addressing party workers Vijay Sankalp Sammelan meeting on Tuesday Amit Shah said that CAA was aimed at giving citizenship not to snatch it away. He asked the BJP workers to thwart the propaganda by opposition parties on CAA.
"Congress, Majlis and BRS opposed our move to grant citizenship to the persecuted minorities through CAA. The Modi government is granting citizenship to scores of persecuted Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis and Hindus from three neighbouring countries, thus fulfilling their dream of living a dignified life," he said.
He added that in 2019, people doubted BJP's manifesto. "However, Modi Ji's 10 years have been a decade of fulfilled promises. We had promised construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370, abolishing triple talaq, reservation for women in legislatures, CAA. Due to appeasement and vote bank politics, Congress kept opposing our initiatives. Despite that, we fulfilled our promises," added Amit Shah.
He continued, "Yesterday, we fulfilled our promise of CAA. The persecuted minorities from the neighbouring countries will now be able to get citizenship in India. They are misleading people, and therefore I would like to inform the minorities of the country that CAA will not forfeit anyone's citizenship. It's a process of according citizenship and not taking it away."
The Union Home Minister further said that BRS and Congress are working on the agenda of Majlis leaders in the state. People of Telangana gave a mandate to Congress, and it seemed that the influence of Majlis would weaken and diminish. However, as soon as the Vidhan Sabha session started, Congress went out of its way and made a Majlis leader the temporary Speaker of the House, he said.
Amit Shah further said that KCR's party and Congress party failed to fulfill their promises. "They were supposed to give jobs to one lakh youths... professors were not recruited in universities. I have a list of 42 such promises that remain unfulfilled. Congress too had promised to eradicate poverty long back. Four political parties are in the fray here. TRS and Congress can't free Telangana from the influence of Majlis and Nizams. Both these parties are working on the agenda of Majlis,” he added.
Shah also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has 'honoured' Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through CAA, on Tuesday.
The Centre on Monday implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, notifying the rules four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
With the unveiling of the rules that came days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from the three countries. The rules came into force with immediate effect, according to a Gazette notification.
(With PTI inputs)