No one will lose citizenship, don’t believe rumours: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said no one would be stripped of their citizenship due to the new citizenship act and accused the Congress of spreading rumours.

Addressing a public rally in Shimla to mark the second anniversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Shah, in his half-hour address, defended the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

“No one will be stripped of their citizenship.”

“The Congress and company are spreading rumours that the citizenship of the minorities will be taken away with the Citizenship Amendment Act.

“I challenge Rahul ‘baba’ to show even one clause in the Act that has provision to take away citizenship of anyone,” he said, even as anti-CAA protests continued in New Delhi.

Shah said under this Act there was no provision to take away the citizenship of anyone.

“This Act has a provision to give citizenship to those belonging to the minorities who came from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said.

Taking a jibe at senior Congress leaders, he said: “The Congress ruled for 10 years. Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh’s government was in power. ‘Pakistan se har roz aalia-malia-jamalia ghus jaate the, hamare jawanon ke sar kaat ke le jaate the, aur desh ke Pradhan Mantri ke muh se uff nahi nikalta tha (Every day an ‘Aalia-Malia-Jamalia’ from Pakistan used to cross over, behead our soldiers and the country’s Prime Minister wouldn’t say a word).”

“They had left the border open. When Narendra Modi came to power, Pakistan thought things would continue like this. They didn’t realise that this is no Congress government...this is the BJP government. Mauni baba (silent) Manmohan Singh was not PM anymore, Narendra Modi, of the 56-inch chest, had become Prime Minister.

“They (Pakistan) made blunders by attacking Uri, Pulwama. But the Modi government showed them, by carrying out the surgical strike, air strike. We entered their home and attacked terrorists operating there,” the Home Minister said.

He said the Modi government in the Centre has approved One Rank, One Pension that gave relief to so many retired military personnel.

Shah, who had donned a Himachali cap, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a special attachment with the hill state.

“When Modiji became the Prime Minister for the first time, he granted special status to Himachal Pradesh with 90 per cent assistance in centrally-sponsored schemes,” he added.

The Home Minister congratulated the government and people of Himachal Pradesh for becoming the first state in the country where every household has a gas connection.

He said that this step would go a long way in preserving the environment of the country.

He released a coffee table book brought out by the government on two years of achievements of the state.

Shah provided gas connections to last three beneficiaries of Himachal Grihini Suvidha Yojna, thereby making Himachal Pradesh the first State of the country with a gas connection in every household.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that no detention centres for illegal migrants would be set up in the state nor would the Citizenship Amendment Act be implemented in her lifetime.

“So long I am alive, CAA will not be implemented in Bengal... Nobody will have to leave Bengal. Nobody will have to leave India. There won’t be any detention centres in Bengal,” she said at an official programme in Naihati of 24 Parganas North district.

Calling upon people not to be unduly worried about CAA and any National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, she said: “Leave your concerns to me. I will take care of that.”

Mamata asserted that nobody would be able to snatch anyone’s citizenship rights.

The Chief Minister yet again extended support to the students’ protests across India against CAA and NRC, and pilloried the Centre for trying to punish them through acts like rustication.

“If students can cast their votes to elect a government once they turn 18, then why can’t they have the right to protest?” she asked.

Mamata has also composed a poem protesting CAA and NRC.

Indo-Asian News Service