As a part of his ongoing tirade against the Central government over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019, which seeks to amend the six-decade-old Citizenship Act, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the bill is aimed at making Muslims “stateless” and will lead to another partition.
Owaisi invoked Mahatma Gandhi saying that he was called Mahatma after he tore the discriminatory citizenship card in South Africa, and then the Hyderabad MP, in a dramatic interlude, ripped the copy of the bill to highlight his protest.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi tore a copy of #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 in Lok Sabha. pic.twitter.com/pzU1NtutD8
— ANI (@ANI) December 9, 2019
This is an insult to India’s freedom-fighters, he said, accusing the BJP-led government of working to marginalise Muslims in the country.
“The bill is against the Constitution… It is a conspiracy to make Muslims stateless,” Owaisi said, questioning the government as to why it had not included countries like China, which occupies parts of India and other countries. “Are you afraid of China?” he asked.
His dramatic protest, however, invited sharp reactions from the treasury benches which described this act an “insult” to Parliament.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday tabled the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019, in Lok Sabha. The amended bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there.
Since the time the Citizenship Amendment Bill has been brought up for discussion in the Lok Sabha’s winter session, the AIMIM chief has been continuing his tirade against the Modi government. Amid strong protests and sloganeering from Opposition leaders, Owaisi today compared HM Amit Shah to Hitler.
Continuing his spiteful rants against Modi government and the CAB, Owaisi asked the speaker to save the 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, said Owaisi in the Lok Sabha.
Hitting out at the central government Owaisi had recently rehashed that if CAB is implemented it “will make India Israel.”
Owaisi had earlier in another veiled attack said that the Modi government was “reviving two-nation theory” and would “dishonour our freedom fighters” if the Bill was passed.
Nobody really knows what Owaisi’s rationale is considering that India is not making any laws against its Muslim citizens. India is not obligated to give citizenship to Muslims from Islamic nations. The CAB is aimed at giving citizenship to persecuted minorities from Islamic nations like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Unless Owaisi believes the theory of ‘Ummah’ and that all Muslims of the world belong to the same nation based on religion, one is hard-pressed to understand this line of attack.
Meanwhile, after an intense debate on the legal and constitutional merits of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the Lok Sabha had voted in favour of the introduction of the bill in the parliament. The proposal to introduce the bill in the parliament passed with 293 members of Lok Sabha voting Aye and 82 members voting No.
