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Updated: Aug 03, 2020 23:03 IST

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of the tabling of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) in the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of Parliament on Wednesday.

The CAB is a attempt by Modi-Shah Govt to ethnically cleanse the North East. It is a criminal attack on the North East, their way of life and the idea of India.



I stand in solidarity with the people of the North East and am at their service.https://t.co/XLDNAOzRuZ — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 11, 2019

“The CAB is a attempt by Modi-Shah Govt to ethnically cleanse the North East. It is a criminal attack on the North East, their way of life and the idea of India,” Gandhi said on Twitter. “I stand in solidarity with the people of the North East and am at their service,” he added.

The central government will table the bill on the floor of Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and is confident that it will be passed by the House. The BJP is banking on the support of parties like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), YSR Congress Party and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which are not part of the BJP-led Nadtional Democratic Alliance (NDA). Though there is a flip-flop from the BJP’s former ally Shiv Sena, and division within Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)], the BJP says it is not worried.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress’s MP from Wayanad in Kerala, has been targeting the central government for bringing in CAB, alleging it will destroy the foundation of the nation. In a tweet on Tuesday, he also slammed the parties which supported the bill in Lok Sabha. “The #CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation,” he said in his tweet yesterday.

The Lok Sabha passed the bill after a fierce day which saw a lot of aggression, both from the government side and those opposing it. Home Minister Amit Shah, who tabled the bill in the Lok Sabha, took on the Congress for saying the bill is against the Constitution. He dismissed the criticism, noting that India has given similar rights to people in the past. Shah said Manmohan Singh and LK Advani could become prime minister and deputy prime minister, respectively, due to such provisions after they came from present-day Pakistan.

He also blamed the Congress for the Partition on religious lines. “Let me tell you why this bill is needed. It is needed because the Congress partitioned this country on the ground of religion…. Who did it? The Congress divided the country on the basis of religion. That was done by the Congress... This is the history,” Amit Shah said.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi tore up a copy on the bill, alleging that it was aimed at making Muslims “stateless”.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Through this bill, Indian citizenship will be provided to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from the three countries to India till December 31, 2014, to put an end to them being treated as illegal immigrants in the country.