Asaduddin Owaisi tears Citizenship Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha, compares Amit Shah to Hitler

HYDERABAD: While debating over the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Hyderabad Member of Parliament and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi attacked the Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah by drawing parallels between him and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and tore copy of the bill in protest. He said the CAB was a 'conspiracy' to make Muslims stateless.

FULL REPORT: Opposition attacks Centre over Citizenship Bill

“I appeal to you (Speaker), save country from such a law and save the Home Minister also. Otherwise, like in Nuremberg race laws and Israel’s citizenship act, Home Minister’s name will be featured with Hitler and David Ben-Gurion,” he said.

His comments were met by protests from the Treasury side, and Speaker Om Birla expunged his statement. "Please do not use unparliamentary language in the house. This remark will be expunged from records," Birla said.

Owaisi said that CAB should be seen through the eyes of NRC where around 19 lakh names were left out, which included names of around 5 lakh Bengali Hindus.

He said, "I want to know from the Home Minister, after the implementation of CAB, will the cases against Bengali Hindus go on? The cases against the Bengali Muslims will surely go on. Is this not discrimination? This is their conspiracy to make Muslims stateless."

Owaisi also said that the law was being made to force another partition of the country and was worse than laws made by Hitler. Following this, Owaisi proceeded to tear the copy of the bill saying, "Do you know how Mahatma Gandhi became Mahatma? He tore the National Register in South Africa. So will I."

EXPLAINER: What is the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and why is it controversial?

Owaisi also referred to decisions of the Supreme Court in various cases. He referred to cases such as the Kesavananda Bharati case, Navtej Singh Johar and Shayara Bano's case and the Sarbananda Sonowal case.

"Secularism is the basic structure of our country. It is outlined in Article 14 of our Constitution and was asserted by the Supreme Court in Kesavananda Bharati case. By bringing the CitizenshipAmendmentBill, the government is violating the Supreme Court's judgement in the Sarbananda Sonowal case", Tweeted AIMIM's official Twitter handle, quoting Owaisi in the Lok Sabha.

Owaisi also pointed out that the Chakmas and Hajongs were granted rights and allowed to live as ordinary residents of Arunachal Pradesh in absence of possession of valid inner line permits by the SC.

The proposed CAB which proposes to make Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis who got into India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for citizenship, won't be applicable in the North East. The bill will also not apply to states that have the inner-line permit regime (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram).