India captain Virat Kohli has said it would be irresponsible on his part to make any comments on the Citizenship Amendment Act without gaining full knowledge on the sensitive subject, reported PTI.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims, leading to protests against it. At least 26 people have died so far in the protests, police reactions to which have turned violent at times.
In 2016, Kohli had termed demonetisation as the “greatest move in history of Indian politics”, which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.
Five people have died in Assam, which was the initial epicentre of the protests, when the police opened fire on protestors on December 17. Curfew was imposed across the state and internet services were shut for almost ten days.
Kohli was asked about the Act and the Indian skipper weighed his words carefully.
“On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it,” Kohli was quoted as saying by PTI ahead of India’s first T20 International against Sri Lanka.
The skipper made it clear that he will not like to get embroiled in a controversy by commenting on a subject that he is not well aware of.
“Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don’t have total knowledge of and it’s not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it.”
However Kohli was happy with the security arrangements in Guwahati and felt that the city is “absolutely safe”.
“The city is absolutely safe. We didn’t see any problems on the roads,” Kohli said, giving his thumbs-up for the match at the Barsapara Stadium.
The Assam Cricket Association is using this match as a curtain-raiser ahead of their maiden IPL match this season as Rajasthan Royals have adopted this venue.
There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against CAA, added the PTI report.
(With PTI inputs)
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