Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy on Monday asserted that “there is nothing in Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which takes away any rights of the Muslims living here. There is not a single word or sentence against any minority community who are already citizens of India”.
Spreading rumours
“However, the Opposition parties and a section of media are spreading rumours it is against Muslims,” he charged, and challenged ‘pseudo-intellectuals’ and Opposition parties to “show one line or word in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which is inimical to minorities of the country”.
Addressing a press conference at the State party office, he clarified that “the present amendment just adds country specific exemption to the naturalisation section. Any Muslim can still become a citizen of India following the process of naturalisation” as under the 1955 Citizenship Act, there are five ways in which a foreigner can become Indian citizen — by birth, descent, registration and naturalisation and incorporation of territory.
The argument that the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be implemented together to discriminate a section of people is also “wrong” since the “NRC guidelines have not been finalised”. Regretting lot of ‘misconceptions’ and ‘misinformation’ campaign unleashed by “vested interests” against the CAA, he blamed the Opposition for “fear mongering” among minorities.
Historic necessity
A Press Information Bureau (PIB) note in the public domain had clearly suggested many options to prove citizenship like the Aadhaar card, voter ID, ration card, etc., said the Minister, and asserted: “India is a secular country and still remains secular”.
The Minister also claimed CAA is a “historic necessity and is meant for refugees among Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis - minorities in the Islamic theocratic countries”. These “countries were part of India before partition in 1947 and the Act renders justice to people — descendants of forefathers migrated or remained in the respective countries believing the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh”.
“India has an obligation to fulfil responsibility towards its own people. CAA is in tune with concerns expressed by successive governments of India since 1947 but only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have shown that moral courage to render justice,” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Reddy joined his party colleagues like TS president K. Laxman, city chief N. Ramchander Rao and others in participating in a protest programme held at the ‘Dharna Chowk’ to highlight the ‘duplicity’ of parties like Congress, Maljis and even TRS in their campaign against the CAA. Various speakers tried to reason that the CAA does not discriminate any existing citizen of the country irrespective of his or her religion.
