SAD LAUDS CAG, DIFFERS ON EXCLUSION OF MUSLIMS

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has appreciated the NDA government’s decision to bring the Citizenship Amendment Bill for clearance in the Parliament on Monday.

The SAD said a long-pending demand of the party had been accepted, but simultaneously urged that the Bill should cover all persecuted people irrespective of religion. “Keeping in view the country’s socialistic, secular and democratic credentials as well as humanitarian principles, Muslims should not be excluded from the Bill on the basis of religion,” it said in a statement after a meeting of the party’s core committee at Badal village in Muktsar on Sunday.

The meeting presided over by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the NDA government had fulfilled the demand of the Akali Dal as well as all minorities, including Sikhs, Hindus, Jain, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, who had fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and taken refuge in India. Sukhbir said the party had been raising the issue of more than 75,000 Sikhs who fled Afghanistan more than 30 years back and were living in Delhi in dire straits. “Sikhs and Hindus and even people from other communities had fled Pakistan and Bangladesh and sought refuge in India but were denied rights. “The Bill not only franchises them but also protects their life and liberty as per the constitution of the country,” he said. The core committee said efforts should be made to encompass all persecuted people under the Bill.