Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused the Opposition of inciting riots and spreading misinformation about Citizenship Amendment Act, PTI reported. His comments came after at least 42 people were killed in large-scale communal violence in parts of North East Delhi over the amended citizenship law.
At a rally in Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader reiterated that the citizenship of Muslims or minorities will not be taken away because of the Act. “Opposition parties are spreading misinformation that Muslims will lose their Indian citizenship because of the CAA,” Shah added. “CAA is a law to give citizenship, it is not meant to take anyone’s citizenship away. They are instigating people and fomenting riots.”
The home minister said the Narendra Modi government had addressed several problems that had plagued the country for 70 years, and cited the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
Shah was in the state to attend a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon participated in the meeting.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, offers a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The government’s critics fear that the law, along with the citizens’ register – which will be used to identify undocumented immigrants – will be used to harass and disenfranchise Muslims.
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