Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. | File image

Key Highlights The Bill seeks to grant citizenship rights to non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan The central government states that Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities in the above countries who have entered India on or before 31 December 2014 will be granted Indian citizenship under this Bill

New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the passage of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in the Lok Sabha on Monday, and said it was nothing but “attack on the Indian Constitution”.

Taking to social media platform Twitter, the former Congress president said, “The CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation.”

The Congress party vehemently opposed the CAB in the Parliament on Monday but the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance eventually won the majority with 311-80 votes in favour of the Bill in the Lower House.

The #CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 10, 2019

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also hit out at the Centre for bringing in the Bill and said that her party will “fight against this government’s agenda to systematically destroy our constitution”.

“Last night at midnight, India’s tryst with bigotry and narrow minded exclusion was confirmed as the CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha. Our forefathers gave their lifeblood for our freedom... In that freedom, is enshrined the right to equality, and the right to freedom of religion... Our constitution, our citizenship, our dreams of a strong and unified India belong to ALL of us... We will fight against this government’s agenda to systematically destroy our constitution and undo the fundamental premise on which our country was built with all our might,” she said in a series of posts on Twitter.

Our constitution, our citizenship, our dreams of a strong and unified India belong to ALL of us.



We will fight against this government’s agenda to systematically destroy our constitution and undo the fundamental premise on which our country was built with all our might. — Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) December 10, 2019

The Bill seeks to grant citizenship rights to non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The central government states that Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities in the above countries who have entered India on or before 31 December 2014 will be granted Indian citizenship under this Bill, thereby clearing them of the ‘illegal immigrants’ tag.

The upper house is set to debate on the Bill on Wednesday. In order to implement the CAB, the NDA must secure 120 votes in favour of the Bill in the 245-member strong House, since the effective number stands at 238.