Cong accuses PM, Shah of spreading ‘9 lies’ on CAA, NRC

NEWDELHI: The Congress on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah of “spreading nine lies” about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), saying the link between the two cannot be denied.

“Their (Modi and Shah) first lie is that CAA is not discriminatory. The Constitution has five provisions for citizenship of India and religion is not mentioned anywhere. The Citizenship Act of 1955 also contains the same provisions,” senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said. “Their second lie is that CAA has no connection with NRC. In April 2019, Shah said CAB will come first, followed by NRC... Third lie — Modi said on December 22, 2019 that there was no discussion on NRC... in the President’s address to Parliament on June 20, the NRC implementation was announced.”

“Fourth lie — The process of NRC was neither notified nor is it legal... when NRC was adopted in 2003, Article 14 (a) mentions it as being legal... Fifth lie - NRC is yet to begin. NRC commencement notification has been issued effective April 1.” “Sixth lie – National Population Register (NPR) has no relation with NRC. The home ministry’s report 2018-19 stated that ‘NPR is the first step to implement NRC’. Seventh lie — No Indian needs to be scared. Family members of ex-President Fakhruddin wasn’t named in NRC...”

“Eighth lie — Modi said that there is no detention centre in the country... 988 people are imprisoned in 6 detention centres in Assam alone... And the ninth lie no force was used against demonstrators. 28 people died in UP alone... The BJP government is lying,” alleged Sibal.