Bharat tere tukde honge ek hazar, Inshallah Inshallah

KOLKATA/BHOPAL: PM Narendra Modi said in Kolkata on Sunday that it was because of the Citizenship Amendment Act that the whole world knew about Pakistan’s “persecution” of minorities. “Had we not brought the amendment, there would not have been any controversy,” he said.“Had this dispute not arisen, the world would not have known how minorities in Pakistan are getting tortured and their human rights being trampled. It is the result of our initiative that Pakistan will now have to answer why they have been persecuting minorities for the last 70 years. Human rights have been demolished in Pakistan,” he said.Addressing a rally in Jabalpur, home minister Amit Shah said those who raised slogans against India would be put behind bars. “Some students raised anti-India slogans, ‘’ at JNU. Shouldn’t they be put in jail? Those who raise antinational slogans will be sent behind bars,” he said at the CAA outreach rally.Shah challenged former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee to point out a single provision in CAA that could take away an Indian’s citizenship.“Congress and opposition parties are misleading the nation on CAA and instigating minorities,” he said, adding, “After independence, Congress divided the country on the basis of religion.” Shah said the government “will not rest” until all the refugees from minority communities from Pakistan are given Indian citizenship.Significantly, Modi chose the Belur headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, associated with Swami Vivekananda’s life and work, to launch a full-throated defence of CAA. “CAA is not about taking away citizenship, it is about giving citizenship,” he told a crowd.The focus of his speech was “youth”. The birth anniversary of Vivekananda is celebrated as National Youth Day. The PM said a section of youth was being “misguided”. “We should tell them the truth... We’ve only done what Mahatma Gandhi had said decades ago. Should we send these refugees back to die? Are they our responsibility or not? Should we make them our citizens or not? Shouldn’t we give them equal rights as citizens of India? I am only doing what Mahatma Gandhi wanted us to do,” he said.Speaking at another event, Modi trained his guns on the Trinamool government. Renaming Kolkata Port Trust after Syama Prasad Mookerjee, he accused the state government of not implementing central schemes because its cadre would not be able to make “cut money” out of them.