Hyderabad, Feb. 11: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that the only objective of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is to trouble Muslims, Dalits and poor.
The Hyderabad MP came down heavily on the Modi government for its decision to implement CAA before Lok Sabha polls. He reiterated that CAA is ‘unconstitutional’ as it was made on the basis of religion.
He was reacting to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha polls.
“It is a wrong legislation. This is against the Constitution of India and made on the basis of religion,” he told media persons here on Sunday.
“The only objective of this law is to trouble Muslim minorities, Dalits and the poor irrespective of the religion they belong to,” he said.
Owaisi said that CAA can’t be seen in isolation. “You have to see CAA with NPR (National Population Register) and NRC (National Register of Citizens).
Owaisi said they never opposed Hindu and Sikhs living in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh coming to India. They get a long-term visa and there is a process to grant them Indian citizenship.
He made it clear that MIM will continue to oppose CAA. Owaisi recalled that on the representation of MIM, the TRS government had passed a resolution in Telangana Assembly that the government will conduct census but no work relating to NPR and NRC will be undertaken here.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that BJP has a target of 370 Lok Sabha seats, Owaisi appealed to people to strengthen AIMIM.
“I am appealing to people to remain united and be vigilant with those forces trying to create division. They want to make BJP’s task easy. We and you have to work together to defeat BJP and with our unity we will defeat ‘small BJP’ as we have always done,” he said, adding that there is a need to strengthen peace in Hyderabad.
The MIM chief also slammed the Modi government for conferring Bharat Ratna on former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and BJP leader L.K. Advani. He cited the speech of Shiv Sena Shinde group’s leader in Lok Sabha in which he stated that when Babri Masjid was being demolished, Narasimha Rao told people not to disturb him as he was busy in puja.
He recalled that wherever Advani’s Rath yatra went, there was violence, houses were deserted and children turned orphans. “This shows who wants to promote peace and who wants to generalise repression,” he said.
