Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a strong pitch for passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha that seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955, the Passport Act 1920 and Foreigners Act 1946.

Amit Shah said, Citizenship amendment bill has the endorsement of 130 crore citizens of the country as it was the part of the BJP manifesto in 2014 as well as 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won both the parliamentary elections.

The Congress opposed the bill with party leader Manish Tewari calling it a monumental blunder. Manish Tewari said, The Citizenship Amendment Bill is inadequate and discriminatoryIt violates Article 14 of the Constitution. We are not against protecting the migrants but this bill violates international law and the constitution.

The Narendra Modi had moved a similar Citizenship Amendment Bill in the previous Lok Sabha, which had passed the bill. But it lapsed with the end of the Lok Sabha’s tenure in May this year.

In the new Citizenship Amendment Bill, the areas mentioned in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and those under Inland Permit (ILP) have been excluded from the purview of the Bill.

We are committed to protect indigenous customs and cultures of Northeast, said Amit Shah.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill aims to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to religious minorities Hindus, Sikhs, Jain, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Rejecting the charge that the Citizenship Amendment Bill targets Muslims, Amit Shah said, The Citizenship Amendment Bill does not discriminate. It gives and does not snatch rights... Citizenship will be granted to refugees [from these three countries] even without documents, including ration cards.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was earlier tabled in the Lok Sabha today by Amit Shah, who argued that the Bill was required to give protection to people who are forced to live in pathetic human condition while rejecting the argument that a Muslim may suffer religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan saying that a Muslim is unlikely to face religious persecution in an Islamic country.

During the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, Amit Shah had to face constant interruptions from the Opposition benches with members asking why the government needed to move a new Citizenship Amendment Bill. Responding to the Opposition members, Amit Shah said, The Citizenship Amendment Bill is required because of the Congress’s decision to agree to the partition of India on religious ground.

When Manish Tewari spoke opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill, he said India faced partition because of those who advocated and supported two-nation theory and [VD] Savarkar was the first to propose this theory.