BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday charged the Congress with inciting violence across the country over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).“The amendment to Citizenship Act is a bold step by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to correct a historic blunder and provide citizenship to the religiously persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Parsis from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Congress is vitiating the atmosphere by launching disinformation campaign against CAA for vote bank politics,” Pradhan said.
Addressing the media after a State-level workshop on CAA, the Union Minister said leaders of rival parties who were strongly advocating a similar legislation are now opposing it. First Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said in Parliament that it is the moral responsibility of India to grant citizenship to minorities persecuted from Pakistan. Modi is fulfilling this desire of the Congress by amending the law, he said.
Launching the party’s public awareness campaign on CAA, Pradhan condemned the Congress and other rival parties for spreading a propaganda that the Muslims living in India will be stripped of their citizenship.Appealing people of the State not to be swayed by false narrative of the Congress and other parties opposed to CAA, Pradhan said the amended provision is to grant citizenship to those persecuted religious minorities living in the country as immigrants.
Asserting that no one in the country will be affected by CAA, the BJP leader said no country accepts foreigners indiscriminately and this has nothing to do with the national register of citizenship (NRC).Responding to a query on NRC, Pradhan said no decision has been taken on the issue by the Centre. Besides, the Prime Minister has clarified on NRC in his address to a BJP rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. He said the BJP will reach out to one crore people in the State to explain CAA and dispel all apprehensions in their mind about the new Act.”