Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday said that if voted to power in Assam, the party will introduce a law to stop the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Gandhi, who was on a two-day tour of the poll-bound state, was speaking at a public rally in Tezpur city.
Gandhi’s announcement on the law to prevent CAA was part of the five “guarantees” that the Congress was highlighting in its campaign in Assam.
Apart from the law, the Congress leader listed the other guarantees – five lakh government jobs, monthly income support worth Rs 2,000 for housewives, raise in daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs 365 and free electricity up to 200 units per household.
“I know leaders come, make promises and then forget about them,” Gandhi said. “So I will not make promises, but give you five guarantees.”
Gandhi claimed that the five “guarantees” were decided upon after a team of experts went through data and the economic status of Assam to draw their conclusions.
“This election is an election of trust. The people of Assam were cheated by a party five years ago that promised them 25 lakh jobs but gave them CAA instead,” she said, according to PTI.
Congress MP and the party’s manifesto committee chairperson Gaurav Gogoi and campaign committee chief Pradyut Bordoloi also said that the guarantees were based on the feedback from the people, The Hindu reported.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, notified on January 10, 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. Across the country, protests broke out last year against the law, seen as an assault on secular values inscribed in the Constitution.
The citizenship law has been widely criticised as discriminatory and Indian Muslims fear it could be used with the National Register of Citizens to harass and disenfranchise them.
The 126-member Assam Assembly will go to polls in three phases on March 27, April 1, and April 6. The results will be out on May 2.
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