Hindus, Muslims

He said the Hindu population in Pakistan reduced from 23 per cent at the time of the Partition to two per cent now, in Bangladesh, the number of Hindus decreased from 22 per cent to 10 per cent and in Afghanistan the number of Sikhs reduced from two lakh to just 378.

“We fulfilled the promise made by the Congress leaders,” he said.

Asked about the exclusion of Muslims from the purview of CAA, which will provide citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian and Parsi refugees from the three countries, the home minister said all three nations are declared Islamic state and Muslims cannot face persecution there.

“No one will lose citizenship because of CAA. I would ask Muslim brothers and sisters not to listen to the opposition. The opposition is merely doing politics with you again,” he said.

Asked about National Register of Citizens (NRC), he said he would talk about it after the elections.

On Rahul Gandhi’s often-repeated statement of OBC welfare, Shah said the prime minister himself is an OBC, but Rahul Gandhi cannot see it.

“There are 27 OBC ministers in the Union cabinet, but they can’t see it. Rahul Gandhi does not know what he is saying,” Shah said.

On West Bengal, the home minister said the BJP will win more than 25 seats out of the 42.

He accused the Mamata Banerjeeled government of indulging in appeasement politics in West Bengal.

“When a state is run based on appeasement and vote-bank politics, neither law and order can be maintained nor development can happen. State-sponsored infiltration is being done for the vote bank,” he claimed.