Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, spearheading the campaign in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, asserted that it has been the ancient tradition of India to give shelter to the persecuted people, and at the same time, it is our responsibility to explain to the people that the CAA is a law to grant citizenship not to divest it.

“It (CAA) is not a law against any citizen of India. It is against those intruders who are responsible for terrorism, extremism and separatism. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party are behind the vicious propaganda against the CAA and are hurting the interests of the country,” Yogi Adityanath said while addressing a rally at Gorakhpur on Sunday.

“The anti-CAA campaign is being run by vested interests by keeping women in the forefront. We cannot remain mute spectator to this kind of situation. It is our constitutional obligation to reach out to people to explain them the reality of the CAA,” the chief minister said.

“The citizenship law was made during the tenure of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Now the Congress finds it inconvenient to own that law,” the chief minister said.

Lashing out at the Congress and the SP, Yogi Adityanath said the conduct of these two parties was “condemnable and irresponsible”. He said both these parties had financed troublemakers for opposing the CAA.

The chief minister addressed the rally in support of CAA at MP Inter College Grounds in Gorakhpur on Sunday as part of the awareness campaign launched by the ruling party to make people aware of the new citizenship law and clear their doubts.

He said that after Independence, the Left parties in the country had misled the people and now Congress, SP and other opposition parties were following in their footsteps.

“The way the people of the country understood the lies of the Left and buried them forever, on the same lines, these parties are also waiting to be buried into political oblivion,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath said the citizenship law gave the Congress an opportunity to repent for its sin, but it missed the opportunity.

“We all should write a postcard in support of this law and greet Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.

The chief minister said that India was emerging as a major global power and the international community had recognised the growing stature of the country. He charged that political forces unhappy with the growing stature of India were running a malicious campaign to malign the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Tension is on the rise between Iran and America and the international community wants mediation by India to ease the situation. The Congress is unwilling to accept this new India and is conspiring to incite violence by sponsoring violent agitations,” Yogi Adityanath charged.

The chief minister said that Prime Minister Modi was fulfilling the promise of providing potable water to the houses of every poor by 2024. “Article 370 was fraudulently implemented by the Congress in Kashmir, and the demand for its abrogation was being raised since 1952. No government dared to repeal this Article but Prime Minister Modi showed the courage and abrogated it,” he said.

The chief minister said that had Article 370 not been in the Constitution, no one would have dared to oust Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir. “Now the people of the country say that the day the government gives orders, the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will be a part of India. If the Indian government has given shelter to the oppressed people, the Congress should have welcomed this step,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath said that for the last 500 years, every Hindu wanted a temple of Lord Ram to be built in Ayodhya. “First the Mughals, then the British continued to keep this issue unresolved. The Congress followed in the footsteps of the invaders .The Supreme Court gave its historic verdict and finally resolved the Ayodhya issue. People used to say that if the decision came there would be blood bath, but not even a mosquito was killed,” he said.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh said that politics was a mission and not a business.

“Workers entrusted with responsibilities in the party should take care of the lower rung workers,” he said.

Singh said that during their 10-year tenure, the Congress got Shankaracharya arrested, denied the existence of Ram Setu and Lord Ram and maligned Hindus by coining the term saffron terrorism.