india

Updated: Dec 14, 2019 19:48 IST

Home minister Amit Shah tore into the Congress for opposing Citizenship Amendment Act for the sake of “appeasing minorities” in a series of tweets on Saturday and said the government was restoring “dignity” to the lives of the refugees who fled from religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, by granting them Indian citizenship. Shah’s stinging attack was launched on the last day of campaigning for the fourth phase of polling for 15 assembly seats in Jharkhand.

Shah said the opposition was “fanning fire” in the northeast despite there being no real threat of the natives losing their political rights, language, culture and social identity. “The government was determined to preserve it,” he said.

Shah said he had promised to resolve some “concerns” raised over the legislation in a meeting with Meghalaya chief minister yesterday.

Keeping the Congress at the centre of his sharp attacks, Shah said the grand old party had a habit of branding important steps like the ban on triple talaq, scrapping of Article 370 and citizenship for religiously persecuted minorities as anti-minority since it was accustomed to vote bank politics.

“Congress has for years done Hindu-Muslim politics and encouraged evils like Naxalism and terrorism. When a prime minister like Narendra Modi takes a strong stand against terrorism, the Congress accuses him of vote bank politics and appeasement,” tweeted Shah.

Shah suggested Rahul Gandhi had incorrectly questioned the significance of raising the Kashmir issue in the Jharkhand polls and said government’s decisions on Jammu and Kashmir were relevant for the state since the maximum number of youth who laid down their lives for the cause of Kashmir hailed from there.

“The youth of Jharkhand serving in the Army and the CRPF have spilled their blood in Kashmir’s snow-laden hills,” said Shah.

The Congress, he said, had only looted the state of Jharkhand in partnership with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), whenever it got the chance.

“They used to take bags full of money belonging to the poor of the state to Delhi,” he said.

Shah also promised a hike in reservation for other backward castes (OBCs) in the state without reducing the existing quota for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) if the BJP was voted to power.