Muslims won’t lose their citizenship: Shah on CAA
SHIMLA: Union home minister Amit Shah here on Friday hit out at the opposition Congress, accusing the party of misleading people over the amended Citizenship Act. He also clarified that the legislation had no provision to take away citizenship.
“The Congress and company is spreading rumours that Muslims may lose their citizenship,” said Shah during at rally at the historic Ridge Maidan here to mark the second anniversary of BJP government in the state.
“I challenge Rahul Baba that let me know if there is even a single line in the Act regarding the withdrawal of anyone’s citizenship. Don’t misguide and divide people over the CAA,” he added. Amit Shah said he wanted to ask the minorities, especially Muslims, to look into the CAA, which was now available on the government website. “Go through the Act. No one will lose citizenship,” he added. The Union minister said the CAA would provide citizenship to the minorities who faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Pakistan failed to implement the Nehru-liaquat pact to protect religious and other rights of the minorities, Shah said, adding that it prompted the Narendra
Modi-led BJP government to table the legislation in Parliament. Amit Shah also attended the ground-breaking ceremony of projects worth over Rs 13,500 crores in Shimla. The HP government had signed Mous worth over Rs 93,000 crore during the two-day Himachal Rising Global Investors’ Meet at Dharamshala in November.
Addressing a rally to commemorate the party’s second year in power in the state, BJP working president JP Nadda said the Congress government had scrapped the special category status of Himachal Pradesh adding that the Modi-led government restored the same.
Special category is a classification given by the Central government in a bid to grant special assistance in the development of states that face geographical and socio-economic disadvantages.
“When the Congress was in power in the Centre, Himachal Pradesh was removed from the list of special category states. However, when Modi Ji’s government came to power in the year 2014, the government pro-actively restored it without any demands,” Nadda said.
The BJP working president was addressing a public rally to commemorate the party’s second year in power in the state, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur were also present.
“Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave a special economic package to Himachal, which led to a lot of development in the state. But when the Congress government came to power, they withdrew the package granted for a period of 10 years within seven years,” Nadda said. Nadda also said that everyone wanted the Citizenship Amendment Act but could not do so. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed the will to bring the CAA, and with the efforts of home minister Amit Shah, it was enacted,” he said.