CAA: Rajnath assures no Muslim living in India will lose citizenship

Ghaziabad: Rajnath Singh, Union Defence Minister, stated on Wednesday that no Muslim residing in India will lose their citizenship. He also charged the opposition parties with misleading the public about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He stated that the BJP stands for nation-building rather than engaging in politics on the basis of caste, creed, or religion while speaking at an election rally in support of the party's Lok Sabha candidate, Atul Garg, in Ghaziabad.

"We said that if our government is formed, we will make a citizenship law. And I want to tell you that after becoming the Home Minister (in 2014), I started this process by talking to the prime minister but due to a lack of clear majority in the Rajya Sabha, that bill could not be passed there whereas it was passed in the Lok Sabha," Singh said.

Later, when Amit Shah became the Home Minister, he took this responsibility on his shoulders and the bill was passed with a full majority in both the Houses of Parliament, he said.

The rules for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, were notified in March this year, four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.

"Now the opposition people try to create this illusion among our Muslim brothers that now you will be thrown out of the country. I want to tell my Muslim brothers that rest assured we believe in the concept of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', i.e, the whole world is our family. No matter what caste or creed one is born in or a follower of any religion or sect, we consider everyone as a member of our family," Singh said.

"Sisters and brothers, anyone who is a Muslim living in India is not going to lose their citizenship. This kind of confusion is being created by our opponents. You go and tell our Muslim sisters and brothers about this," the BJP leader told the gathering.

The minister said the BJP has delivered on what it promised in its manifestos since the days when the party was known as Jana Sangh, whether it was the issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya or abolishing triple talaq.

"I only want to say one thing for the BJP, we do what we promise. I want to remind you that when we worked as Jana Sangh, we had then said in our manifesto that the day we get a clear majority in Parliament, then no power in the world would be able to stop us from making a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. This was part of our manifesto 1984 onwards," Singh said.

"We had talked about abolishing triple talaq and we did it. Congress workers would say to us why we are poking our nose into other religions. Whether it's the women of Hindu community, or Muslim, Christian, Parsi, we look at everyone with respect. One may like it or not, but we won't accept that any person can instantly abandon his wife of any creed or belief after marriage just by uttering talaq thrice. We had resolved to end triple talaq and you have seen that we did it," he added.

"We are not people who do politics on the basis of caste, creed and religion. And there are people who do politics on the basis of humanity... We respect all the religions in India. Be it a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Parsi, we respect everyone," Singh added.

Ghaziabad has over 29 lakh registered voters and goes to polls on April 26.

With PTI inputs