Amidst raging protests across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday accused the BJP-led NDA Government of showing "utter disregard" for people's voices and using brute force to suppress dissent that was "unacceptable" in a democracy.
Condemning the Government's action, she expressed Congress' solidarity with students and citizens in their just struggle. In a televised message, Sonia said people have the right to raise their voice against wrong decisions and policies of the government, and register their concerns.
"The Congress party assures the people of India that it is fully committed to stand up and defend their fundamental rights and uphold the foundational values of our Constitution," she said. She also termed the act as "discriminatory" and said the proposed nation-wide NRC will particularly hurt the poor and vulnerable.
Holding the government responsible for widespread protests in the country, the party demanded that the contentious citizenship law be repealed, and pitched for dialogue with protesters.
Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said people's rights must be respected and those protesting against the act need reassurance, and thus must be heard by the government.
"People's rights must be respected, people need reassurance and need a dialogue. They (the government) should hold back any further action on this act. We have asked the President also to intervene and the Supreme Court is seized of the matter. It would be advisable if the government itself repeals it," he said.
On the current spree of protests across the country against the Citizenship Amendement Act, Sharma alleged the situation is entirely created by the government.
"We had forewarned them that you will create an environment of insecurity and uncertainty in the country. And you cannot even estimate the fallout because people are apprehensive and rightly so. They have seen what has happened in the NRC. Assam has a history but after the Assam Accord things were settling down," he said.
Sharma also asserted that this unwarranted amendment could have been avoided as the citizenship act and the constitution of India have enough provisions to grant citizenship and this has been done in the past.
The grand old party also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making boastful claims that were far from the reality and being in the denial mode as it challenged him for a debate. Sharma said the country's economy was in shambles and warned of a grave crisis next year if urgent steps were not taken to nurse it.
He also said the ongoing agitation in the country was the creation of the government as it was pushing ahead its divisive agenda and called for repealing the amended Citizenship Act, which was not acceptable to people who were protesting all over the country.