Congress leader Pawan Khera has said that the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 will be revoked if the party comes to power.
Pawan Khera addressing a press conference said that the cutoff date for 1971 is sacrosanct for Assam. But that CAA will take away and 2014 will be their new cut-off date.
He was referring to the cut-off date of March 25, 1971, for granting Indian citizenship to people entering Assam from Bangladesh, according to the Assam Accord.
Under the CAA, the Modi government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014. “The Congress will repeal the CAA if voted to power,” Khera said.
There were massive protests in some parts of the country, including the Northeastern region, after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and got the presidential assent. The home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.
On Modi’s scheduled visit to Assam later this week, the Congress leader criticized him for not visiting Manipur. “Why is the prime minister afraid of visiting Manipur? We request him to visit the state for at least half an hour when he comes here,” he said.—INP
