Home Minister Amit Shah rebuked the remarks made by Congress leader P Chidambaram on the Congress party's plan to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act if they return to power, stating that Congress is "hell-bent on harming" Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Sikh, and Parsi communities to appease its vote bank.
In a statement, the minister said, “Blinded by the politics of appeasement, Congress has lost its nerve upon seeing its crushing defeat in the first phase. It is hell-bent on harming Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Sikh, and Parsi communities to appease its vote bank.”
To change laws, one needs to be in government and it’s not possible for the Congress to become even the main opposition party, Shah added.
He asserted that it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantee that everyone from persecuted minority communities who have come to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh will receive citizenship through the CAA, and no one can stop it.
Playing up the propaganda of persecution of minorities in neighbouring Muslim countries, Amit Shah said the Congress has a problem with Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, and Parsis receiving citizenship, he alleged, adding the opposition party is troubled at justice being served within three years through the law.
Voters will teach the Congress a bigger lesson in this Lok Sabha elections than the 2019 and 2014 polls, the BJP leader said.
“To change laws, one needs to be in government, and it’s not possible for the Congress to become even the main opposition party,” he said.
A party needs to win at least 10 per cent of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats to become eligible to be recognised as the main opposition party, a threshold the Congress could not cross in the last two elections.
Shah claimed that India has freed itself from the clutches of the Congress, which suppressed its fundamental culture and thoughts.
“Modi Ji has changed the criminal laws of the British era, providing India with the world’s most modern justice system, while the Congress talks about changing it,” he said in an apparent reference to the new criminal laws to replace the colonial era statutes.
Senior Congress leader Chidambaram on Sunday said the CAA will be repealed in the first session of Parliament if the INDIA bloc forms the government at the Centre.
Chidambaram said the intention of the Congress party is to repeal the CAA even though it is not mentioned in its manifesto.The former Union minister had also cited, Shah noted, the three criminal laws as among the Acts the opposition will repeal, amend or review if it is voted to power.
Shah said that neither the Congress will ever come to power nor the laws enacted for public welfare will ever be revoked. He asserted that these laws empower the common people of the country and protect their rights.
Under the leadership of PM Modi, it is the priority of the BJP government to provide Indian citizenship and secure the rights of persecuted Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Sikh, and Parsi communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, he said.
“This law represents the fundamental principles of the Constitution. Chidambaram is insulting the dreams of the architects of the country’s independence, who advocated for these laws, by talking about scrapping them,” he said.
He asserted that by abolishing colonial laws, the BJP has for the first time in India’s history attributed Indianness to the legal system, but the Congress still does not want to “abandon its mentality of slavery”.
People of the country have made up their minds to “lead” the BJP-led alliance to victory on more than 400 seats with a resounding majority under the leadership of Modi, the home minister said.