New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) The Congress today hit out at theModi government over its decision that passport holdersrequiring emigration check would be given an orange-colouredpassport, saying the BJP was "obsessed" with orange and themove "screamed of discrimination".
The Congress put out a video on its Twitter handle,saying the move could encourage "classism" against migrantworkers.
The video shows the BJP's top leadership and workersstaging protests, besides the RSS workers taking out a marchpast wearing orange/saffron-coloured clothes/bandanas/flags.
"A passport of a different colour for a certain class ofIndians is an invitation for discrimination.
#OrangeIsTheNewBlue," the Congress tweet said.
The video also stated that, "We know the BJP is obsessedwith the colour orange...the newest target is our passport,that could change from blue to orange.""This move screams discrimination and could encourageclassism against migrant workers...Could this be India's newcaste system? Orange is the new Blue," the video says.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday attacked theModi government over its decision that passport holdersrequiring emigration check would be given an orange-colouredpassport while others will continue to get a blue one, sayingit shows the BJP's "discriminatory mindset".
He also said the move was unacceptable and shows thatthe government was treating India's migrant workers as "secondclass citizens".
The passport holders with ECR (Emigration Check Required)status would be issued a passport with orange passport jacketand those with non-ECR status would continue to get a bluepassport, an MEA statement had said last week.
ECR is mostly required for less skilled workers.
"Treating India's migrant workers like second classcitizens is completely unacceptable. This action demonstratesBJP's discriminatory mindset," the Congress president hadtweeted yesterday.
Till now, all Indian citizens were given blue-colouredpassports, with the exception of diplomatic and officialpassports which have red and white covers respectively. PTISKC ASKSMN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.