Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
New Delhi: Amid a government official’s statement that the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA rules were notified ‘much before’ the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Wednesday said it is now clear that the purpose of the law is to inform voters just before the elections. It is to be used as a weapon for polarisation. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a post on social media platform ‘X’, said that the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had forcefully introduced the controversial law in Parliament in December 2019.
‘Extension was sought 9 times’
Ramesh said that according to parliamentary procedures, rules to implement the law should have been prepared within 6 months, but extension was sought 9 times to prepare the rules. The senior Congress leader said, ‘Now we have been told that the rules will be notified before the Lok Sabha elections. It is clear from this that its objective was to use it as a weapon to polarize voters just before the elections. Earlier, Congress MP Manish Tewari said that religion cannot be the basis of citizenship in a country where secularism is enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution.
What is there in CAA?
Let us tell you that under the CAA brought by the Modi government, Indian citizenship will be given to those non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – people of Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian religions who due to persecution have not come to India till 31 December 2014. Had come. There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the law was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and later received Presidential assent. A senior government official had said on Tuesday that the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 will be notified ‘well before’ the announcement of Lok Sabha elections.
Manish Tiwari said this
Attaching a media report on the government official’s statement, Tiwari said on Twitter, ‘In a country where secularism is enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution, can religion be the basis of citizenship, whether within the geographical boundaries or beyond them? Outside? The answer is no. This was the central point of my argument when I led the opposition to the CAA Bill in the Lok Sabha in December 2019. This is the main question in the challenge before the Supreme Court. (Language)
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