Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday slammed the Congress’ protest over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying it it was part of a pact between former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his then Pakistani counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan. He added that the pact was not implemented as the Congress was more interested in creating vote banks.

“I want to say to the Congress party that this was part of Nehru-Liaquat pact but was not implemented for 70 years because you wanted to make vote bank. Our government has implemented the pact and given citizenship to lakhs and crores of people,” Shah was quoted by ANI as saying at an event in New Delhi.

The pact between both prime ministers was signed in 1950. The Home minister said that the Nehru-Liaquat pact had failed and had Pakistan followed the spirit of the pact, there would have been no need for the current government to bring the Citizenship Amendment bill.

Slamming the Opposition further, Shah said they were misleading the country and there was no question of taking away anybody’s citizenship. “Entire opposition is misleading the people of country. I reiterate that there is no question of taking away citizenship of any person from any minority community. There is no such provision in the bill,” he added further.

Shah further asserted that the Modi government will ensure that non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan get Indian nationality and live in the country with honour. and challenged the people against the new law to oppose the legislation as much as they can.

“Come what may, the Modi government will ensure that these refugees get Indian citizenship and live as Indians with honour,” he said.

Since the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment bill in Lok sabha, massive protests have been seen in Assam, Tripura and some parts of West Bengal, which only grew in few days after it was passed in the both Houses of the Parliament, subsequently becoming an act.

The protests gradually shifted to other parts of the country, with clashes reported from Delhi, Varanasi, Aligarh among other places. Last Sunday, there was clash between protestors and Delhi Police in which a number of students of Jamia Millia Islamia University and cops were injured. Fresh clashes erupted on Tuesday with incidents of stone pelting reported from Seelampur as well as Jaffrabad areas of the national capital. The police had to use tear gas to bring violent protests under control.

While protests continue in West Bengal, in Assam’s Guwahati the curfew has been lifted. In Dibrugarh, curfew has been lifted for 14 hours since 6 am this morning. As per the Citizenship Amendment Act, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians fron neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh will be granted citizenship.