BENGALURU: After a series of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Bengaluru by various organisations and volunteers, for the first time, a few organisations came together in support of the CAA. Around 2,800 people gathered in front of Town Hall on Sunday morning and supported CAA, and the rally saw Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and activist Chakravarthy Sulibele participating.
In their speeches, they blamed Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, for creating hatred and fear over CAA by providing wrong and misleading information about the Bill.
The organisers, India For CAA, had expected a crowd of around 600-700, but the swelling crowd which joined them was totally unexpected -- members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Sri Rama Sene and Chhatrapati Shivaji organisations, along with a few lawyers and students, took part.
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The gathering started at 10 am and ended at 1 pm, and was conducted peacefully. The organisations supported CAA in the name of ‘India Supports CAA, Vande Mataram’.
The supporters requested people opposing the Act not to take law into their hands, as it was not against any particular community, but specifically for non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. But the Congress and other parties were sending wrong messages to the public about the Act, causing riots across the country.
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Addressing the crowd, Surya said, “The Centre passed the Bill with a majority in both Houses to put a brake on illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It has nothing to do with Indian Muslims. Congress is spreading wrong messages for political gains. Many states, including Assam, West Bengal, other North and North-Eastern states and Karnataka, have many illegal immigrants from the above-mentioned countries. A few fake secular people are making false statements against CAA, and one has to first know that CAA and National Register for Citizens (NRC) are different.”
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Activist Chakravarthy Sulibele addressed the crowd, saying, “A true citizen of India need not panic over CAA. People in states like Assam and West Bengal have become a minority due to illegal immigrants. People who are against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are making false statements, leading to riots and loss of around Rs 500 crore across the country, through arson and damage to public and private properties.”
Pralhad Joshi slams Opposition over Act
Bengaluru: On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched attacks on the Opposition for allegedly creating confusion over the CAA, Union minister Pralhad Joshi reiterated the statements here. The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Coal and MP from Karnataka accused the Congress of misleading the Muslim community. Addressing the media in Bengaluru, Joshi said Congress was inciting violence, unable to accept the “phenomenal rise of the BJP and Narendra Modi.”
“The Act was all about giving citizenship to six religious minorities of three Islamic republics of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, while not taking away the citizenship of anybody in India,” he said. He insisted that since Muslims are not religious minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, they won’t be persecuted.