Amid protests across the country over the new citizenship law, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to God for enabling Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities.

Hailing the government over its push to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said, "Narendra Modi has emerged as a God for those who were persecuted and living in hell."

"Bhagwan ne jeewan diya, maa ne janam diya, lekin Narendra Modi ji ne fir se zindagi di hai [God gave life, mother gave birth but Narendra Modiji gave them a new life]," Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in Jaipur as he spoke on the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP in Jaipur on #CitizenshipAmendmentAct: Narendra Modi inke liye bhagwan ban ke aaye hain jo pratadit the aur nark ki zindagi jee rahe the. Bhagwan ne jeewan diya, maa ne janam diya, lekin Narendra Modi ji ne fir se zindagi di hai. pic.twitter.com/mKnTryu6zb ANI (@ANI) December 23, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday appealed to people not to indulge in violence as maintained that the new citizenship law and the NRC have nothing to do with Indian Muslims.

Defending the contentious law, PM Modi had said at a Delhi rally that it is about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries and does not snatch anybody's rights.

On the National Register of Citizens, PM Modi had sought to allay apprehensions, especially among Muslims, saying his government never discussed it since coming to power for the first time in 2014. "Since my government first came to power in 2014, I want to tell 130 crore countrymen, there has never been a discussion on this NRC," PM Modi had said, as he noted that it was done only in Assam due to a Supreme Court order.

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