Everyone must read the Citizenship (Amendment) Act before coming to a conclusion about it, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu said after delivering a lecture as part of the Extra Mural Lectures series at IIT-Madras on Saturday.
When asked by a student what his opinion on CAA was, he said, “First study CAA.” Urging the people to acquire an in-depth understanding of what CAA and the National Population Register were, the Vice-President said they could protest if they were not convinced, but in a peaceful and democratic manner. He said the citizenship law was there only to help persecuted minorities from three neighbouring countries. “Gandhiji had expressed the need for this. The Congress Working Committee passed a resolution for this in 1947, and many parties have expressed the need [for this law] on different occasions,” he said.
Stressing the need for understanding the intention behind the legislation, he said other concerns could be addressed later. Referring to the concern raised about the exclusion of Sri Lankan Tamils from the ambit of the legislation, he said his understanding was that they preferred to go back to their country and live with equal rights there.
In his lecture, he stressed the need to “respect the mandate of people and the rule of law”. He highlighted the need for institutions like IIT-Madras to come up with innovative solutions to make agriculture viable, conserve nature and bridge the urban-rural divide.
Surprise move
Later, in an impromptu move that reminded the audience of former President APJ Abdul Kalam's style of interaction, Mr. Naidu mingled with the students after getting off the stage, taking security personnel by surprise. Though the IIT administration had planned a restricted Q&A session where the emcee alone would ask a few questions, Mr. Naidu invited anyone from the audience to raise queries. He took questions on a range of topics including CAA, students’ entry into politics, criminalisation of politics, women’s representation and even his retirement plans.
