CAA will be scrapped if INDIA bloc comes to power: Chidambaram

The contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) will be repealed in the ‘rst session of Parliament if the INDIA bloc comes to power, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has said.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, the former Union Finance Minister vehemently refuted the charge that the Congress’s election manifesto was silent on the CAA. “I’m the chairman of the manifesto committee. I wrote every word of it. I know what we intend to do. The CAA will be repealed. Not amended, (it) will be repealed. We’ve made it clear. We’ve no doubt at all in our minds — and I want you also not to have any doubt — that the CAA will be repealed in the ‘rst session of Parliament in which the INDIA bloc forms the government,” he said.

It may be recalled that in Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had slammed the Congress manifesto for being conspicuously silent on the CAA.

Mention of the CAA and other contentious laws were dropped from the document “because it became already too long,” according to Mr. Chidambaram. The CAA was one among the ‘ve laws that would be “absolutely repealed,” he said.

The BJP, Mr. Chidambaram said, was no longer a political party, but a cult. “And the cult worships Narendra Modi. It is a party of cult worshippers,” he alleged. The fact that the BJP election manifesto was titled ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ was reminiscent of countries where such cult worship was promoted, he said.

‘Crucial polls’

Describing the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as an election to save democracy, Mr. Chidambaram said that if Narendra Modi was voted back to power “this will be the last true democratic election.”

The Ram Temple in Ayodhya should have no role in the elections, Mr. Chidambaram said. “The people wanted a temple, a temple has come up. That should be the end of the story. Why should the temple in Ayodhya play a role in politics, in elections, who should rule the country? It should have no role at all,” he said. Mr. Chidambaram accused the Modi government of misleading the public on the extent of Indian territory held by Chinese troops. He described unemployment as the “gravest challenge” to India. While the Modi government had “destroyed” jobs, the Congress had a concrete and comprehensive plan to create them, he said.