In a blistering riposte, Union Home Minister Amit Shah slammed the Congress party for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019. Shah said that the Congress party echoed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in questioning CAB while adding that the party also opposed the Enemy Property Bill that enabled and regulated the appropriation of property in India owned by Pakistani nationals.
HM Amit Shah: On #CitizenshipAmmendmentBill2019, Pak PM’s comment and Congress’s comment- both are alike. Why are you (Congress) rattled?…. I want to ask why did Congress oppose the Enemy Property Bill. pic.twitter.com/ettfToJcJX
— ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2019
Allaying the anti-Muslim misgivings stoked by the Congress party, Shah assured the Muslim population of the country that nobody can snatch their citizenship away from them. “Kapil Sibal said that Muslims don’t fear me. They should not. Neither should you be worried about them. Nobody is stripping Indian Muslims of their citizenship. This Bill is about granting of citizenship, not about the cancellation of it,” Shah thundered in the Rajya Sabha.
HM Amit Shah: Kapil Sibal Ji said “Muslim aapse nahi darte”. Unhe bhi nahi darna chahiye. Aur aap daraiye bhi mat. Bharat ke musalman ki nagrikta koi cheen nahi raha hai. Yeh nagrikta dene ka Bill hai, nagrikta lene ka nahi. pic.twitter.com/LoOqMxoa5t
— ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2019
Shah also rubbished the claims made by the Congress party that the BJP government has institutionally ostracised the Indian Muslims by pursuing anti-Muslim policies. “Neither CAB is anti-Muslim, nor abrogation of Article 370 is anti-Muslim, Triple Talaq Bill is not anti-Muslim either. Triple Talaq Bill empowers crores of Muslim women in the country,” Shah said.
Read: The historic Citizenship Amendment Bill passed by the Rajya Sabha with 125 Ayes and 105 Noes
Regarding the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state, Shah said that the invalidation of the archaic Article affects the non-Muslim minorities in Kashmir in the same manner as the majority-Muslims and the opposition claim that it was anti-Muslim is completely baseless.
Exposing the Congress party on its charade of secularism, Shah said why weren’t questions raised when the Rajasthan government wrote to the then HM P Chidambaram about the outstanding issue of 13000 Pakistani refugees from Hindu and Sikh communities during the UPA tenure. The Union Home Minister said that while during the Congress regime only two communities benefitted while the bill proposed by them stands to benefit 6 persecuted communities.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah: But, no one will say anything because whatever the Congress does is secularism. Till when will you fool people? https://t.co/hZpqVzpVew pic.twitter.com/ONZYDSdn0s
— ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2019
On the question of why Rohingyas were not included in the list of communities who can seek asylum in India through CAB, Shah responded that Rohingyas did not enter India directly but they infiltrated via Bangladesh and therefore they were excluded from the bill.
Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts
Amit Shah did not shy away from questioning his erstwhile alliance partner-Shiv Sena on its flip-flop on the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Insinuating that Shiv Sena was taking orders from their new alliance partners, Shah asked the Uddhav Thackeray’s party to explain what transpired in a single night that after unequivocally supporting the CAB bill in the Lok Sabha, they have reversed their stand in Rajya Sabha.
