LUCKNOW: Under BJP’s ongoing outreach campaign to clear confusion over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh re-assured Muslims that they will not be affected, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, on the other hand, launched a scathing attack on opposition for pushing women to protest at the forefront while the men were relaxing at home.
While addressing a huge rally in Meerut, Rajanth Singh allayed the apprehensions of the protesting Muslim community stating that the new law would not impact their citizenship in any way.
“Let me assure the Muslim brothers that those who are already the citizens of India will not be touched under CAA,” he said.
In order to clear the air over the new law and convince the protestors, the Defence Minister claimed that even Mahatma Gandhi had advocated citizenship for persecuted minorities from Pakistan after partition.
“Even Mahamta Gandhi wanted citizenship for persecuted minorities comprising Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains, on religious lines. In 2003, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had put forth the same opinion in Rajya Sabha. We are only following what they had batted for. Have we done some crime by doing so,” Singh asked the crowd.
Rajnath shared that CAA was drafted during his tenure as Home Minister in the previous stint of BJP government at Centre but it could not be passed as the party lacked numbers in Rajya Sabha.
“At a time when the entire world is looking at us accepting the strength of our democracy, this law should not be viewed in terms of a Hindu-Muslim divide,” Rajnath said.
“We never indulge in politics of religion. We don’t do politics to form the government. We do politics for nation-building,” asserted the defence minister.
Meanwhile, in a separate rally in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath slammed the sponsors of anti-CAA protests for keeping the women on the forefront and relaxing in comfortable confines of their homes.
Yogi also claimed that the intent behind the ongoing protest against CAA was to facilitate entry of ISI agents in the country.
He reiterated that in democracy, peaceful protest was the right of citizens which he respected. “But if anyone will try to spread hatred and vandalise public property, then recovery will be made from him,” he said.
The CM cautioned the protestors against ranting anti-India slogans such as “Kashmir wali azadi” in Uttar Pradesh saying, in that case, they would be charged with sedition.
Drawing an analogy with Draupdadi’s chirharan (disrobing), the CM said all those who remained mute spectator to wrongdoings were also equally culpable of the crime. “So we have to take the endeavour of PM Modi forward with all our might,” he said.