Modi, Shah ‘drag on democracy’, lying on CAA: Sibal

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal accused both the leaders of lying to the nation over the CAA and said that they are a “drag on democracy.”

Pointing out nine lies spread about the CAA by both the leaders, Sibal said, “Their first lie is that CAA is not discriminatory, which is wrong as the Constitution's five provisions for citizenship of India has no mention of religion. Even the Citizenship Act of 1955 also has the same provisions.”

“The second lie that both – Modi and Shah—are spreading about the CAA is that it has no connection with NRC. In April 2019, Amit Shah had said that CAB will come first, followed by NRC. On December 9, 2019, Shah spoke of a nationwide NRC after passing CAB in Lok Sabha. The link of CAA-NRC cannot be denied,” Sibal said.

“The PM had said in a rally on December 22, 2019 that there was no discussion on NRC after he formed government. Which is again wrong as in the President's address to the Joint Session of Parliament on June 20, 2019, NRC implementation primarily was announced,' the

Congress leader said.

Highlighting about the fourth lie, Sibal said, “Both the leaders say that the process of NRC was neither notified nor is it legal, which is not true as when NRC was adopted in 2003, article 14 (a) mentions it as being legal and that it will give identity card to every citizen of the country.”

On the commencement of NRC, Sibal said, “The NRC commencement notification has been issued which would be effective from April 1 this year.” Similarly, the government has maintained that NPR has no relation with NRC, which is again contradictory as the Home Ministry's annual report 2018-19 stated that “NPR is the first step to implement NRC”.

On the seventh lie, the Congress leader said, “Both the leaders said that no Indian needs to be scared, then why family members of our former president Fakhruddin Saheb; Kargil war award winner Sanaullah Khan were not named in Assam's NRC.”

“The government has also lied on detention centre as 988 people are imprisoned in six detention centres in Assam alone. Even in January 2019, directions were issued by the Centre to set up detention centres,” he said, adding that government has also lied on use of force against demonstraters as 28 people died in UP alone.