NEW DELHI: No Indian citizen, whether he is a follower of Islam or any other religion, will be affected by the amended citizenship act (CAA), said defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday, stressing that PM Narendra Modi and his government would never take any decision based on any communal agenda.

Noting that he knew Modi better than anyone else in the cabinet, Singh said he had personally seen the PM been greatly anguished over the baseless and unfounded allegations being hurled at him during the ongoing CAA controversy. “I know the intention (behind enacting the CAA)…No one will touch the citizens of India, including the minorities,” he said, speaking at the ET-GBS here.

“India believes in ' Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam ’ or the whole world is our family. India can never discriminate based on caste, creed or religion. I am of the belief that it is a crime to discriminate on the basis of religion,” he said, seeking to allay the fears of Muslims over the new law.

Noting that the citizenship (amendment) bill had been drafted when he was the home minister in 2016, Singh said the law was meant for those who were being religiously persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. “There is a need to remove the confusion among the minorities in India,” he said.

Some people have asserted that it would have been better if only the word “minority” had been used in the law, instead of specifying the Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zoroastrian communities who were facing harassment in the three countries. “But if the country concerned had changed the definition of minority, we would not have been able to give them citizenship here even if they were being religiously persecuted. That is why we did not use the word `minority’,” he said.

