‘Hadn’t there been partition on basis of religion, CAB wouldn’t be needed’: HM Shah silences hostile Congress

New Delhi, December 9: Digging out history, mirroring the damage it caused; Union Minister Amit Shah in Lok Sabha pointed out each detail as to why the citizenship amendment bill should be discussed in the house. ‘It’s not our fault, it’s theirs. They’ll have to listen to it because it’s our history’, said Shah hitting that had the Congress Party not allowed the Partition of this country on the basis of religion, this Bill wouldn't have been needed.

 

Tabling the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha, Amit Shah voicing it loud and clear assured everyone in the House that the Bill he was introducing isn't against any Article of the Constitution of India. Slyly hitting on Congress for tampering the facts of the Bill, Shah said that some members felt that the Right to Equality would be affected by this, but it is not true. Stating the effect of 1971, Amit Shah asked Indira Gandhi had decided to give citizenship to everyone who came from Bangladesh. Why weren't people from Pakistan given Citizenship then? Continuing further Shah explained that the genocide in the countries have not stopped even after 1971. The minorities have been continuously persecuted in Bangladesh.

Slamming all the decisions and asking for a logical reasoning, the Union Minister also added that the dynasty party gave refugees from Uganda citizenship but not from England. Why? There was a reasonable classification behind it. Explaining further, Shah cited that there are lot of laws that have been made associated with Article 14 with reasonable classification in the past. Three countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are closely related to India's ground realities and in order to understand the bill it needs to be discussed considering the constitution of the three countries.

 

Elaborating ahead, he said, Article 2 states in The Constitution of Afghanistan that Islam is the religion of the country. There are similar provisions in Constitutions of Pakistan & Bangladesh as well. At the time of partition, refugees were exchanged. The Nehru-Liaquat Pact happened in 1950 in which both countries promised to take care of its minorities, but sadly, religious atrocities happened against Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains and other minorities in these countries.

Therefore, this Bill aims to provide citizenship to religiously persecuted minorities who have come to India. Lashing out at Congress, Shah corrected that the government is not taking away any rights from Muslims, contrary to the popular belief mounting among the people because some are tampering the facts of the bill. Adding further, he also cleared it out that if any Muslim individual applies for the same, it will be considered with an open mind. Grounds of religious persecution is out of question, because all three countries have Muslims as Majority.